So I am Alan Johnson. I know some of you not all of you. It's been a while since I preached I guess I was thinking I think I've only preached once in this new sanctuary and this sounds really old man or whatever I mean I feel like but gosh, I miss the old place I don't know these lights bothering me and stuff. It's just also weird in here But this is an awesome space as well and it's good to be here with you today I work on the college campus at the Wesley Foundation.
We're like a church on campus We're connected to the greater Methodist Church of Louisiana on and on and on I could talk but but anyway What I do is hang out with college kids and try to talk to them about Jesus And that takes on all shapes form sizes from hamburger patties to pool tables and kayaks and all kinds of different stuff One of the things that's been cool over the past year is that I've gotten to be a part of the ULM baseball team So it's kind of fitting that Chad called me yesterday I guess it was yesterday Yeah yesterday to ask me a preach because I was on this baseball retreat with the whole team and the coaches and all these other X ball players and stuff and So it's like I got you know, I got called in from the bullpen or whatever, you know, I'm not a baseball Yeah, I mean I can't throw it fast at all, but but I'm here with you, so hopefully that's okay But yes, so being a part of of college students lives There's just a lot of stories and a lot of things that happen and I don't want to harp on my great experience from the weekend But I do want to tell you just a little bit about it before we before we jump into everything else We're doing so so in January of 21 which seems like, you know a long time ago Even though it's just a year ago I connected with the baseball team and and started They started coming to the Wesley every Monday and and we feed them some lunch and then I speak to him And usually, you know, that's the the Bible kind of talk or whatever And and so I'm kind of the the Jesus guy the chaplain or whatever if you will So they kind of know what they're getting with me and you know going to the dugout and being there at their games And going to practice and going to the road with them some I mean I eventually kind of developed some good relationships So some of them and by the time this fall started we started the Bible study We we had about 12 or 13 the first week and then everybody realized they had classes and so that shrunk to about eight that came every week And so even those eight though, you know, I mean I knew them But I didn't know I'm like super super well But but over this whole time There's been a getting to know those guys and and it's almost like a like a farmer You know when you read the parable of the soils and the Bible you're preparing the soil and you're throwing out seeds And you know, you're not in charge of growing it. You don't do that miraculous thing that happens under the ground I don't know anything about the science of it or whatever But but God God does that incredible part and so this weekend isn't the culmination of everything that I've been doing But it sure has been like a big huge piece of of of the growth of that team and those guys We have four guys this morning that are that are getting baptized We had so many different things happen in the weekend where guys were just opening up their struggles and really breaking down some walls And and going from being a team to being more of a family I know teams throw that family word around a lot, but it was real this this weekend And so just one one quick story There's one one player and I got to know him last year and he had a lot of struggles Just in life and then on the field and was playing real good for a while And then didn't play very good And just everything kind of fell apart at the very end of the season and when he came back this fall He was carrying some baggage that he never told anybody about and and then it really bad this fall to the point where he was thinking of Taking his own life and telling anybody and then he just let all that stuff keep building up and by the end of the semester He wasn't hardly talking to anybody on the team He would he would dodge me when I would try to I would I would follow him You know in the locker room and ask him stuff and he would just yeah Yeah, and then not talk to me anymore And this is a kid that I'd gone to lunch with I'd prayed over him all kinds of stuff He was just shutting down and Wouldn't talk to his coaches either and so yesterday He got up and he shared He shared that about how driving back from Stirlington because they were having to practice out there some because they were getting a new field He shared that he just thought about just turning the wheel and finding a tree Shared that with his team And so the it was incredible because the guy who was sort of leading the discussion he he you know prayed over him or whatever and And the whole team came up and prayed over Which was incredible. I mean these are some of these guys are tough as nails cocky dudes, whatever, you know And they're up there weeping with their brother But then the best part the best part was after all these players that hugged him and everything Then he was kind of was like I bought I bought with his head coach And they had had their kind of differences whatever, you know and just to watch those two embrace You talk about breaking somebody down man. I can barely hold it together talking to you That's the power of this God be served.
He was holding on to so much stuff He just let it go And so I just encourage you to know that because I know for me like sometimes I get really been out of shape or I get frustrated in life Just things aren't going the way I wanted to go And even sometimes with the baseball ministry part of what we were doing I was like I don't even know these guys care from there, you know, you never know what you're doing and then what it's gonna lead to I mean you may not you may not ever see the harvest. I was kind of cool But I got a little glimpse of it this weekend God is doing things all the time like underneath the ground and you feel that seat out God's up to stuff or our family we Established this tradition a long time ago at Christmas. I'm not really sure where we came up with it I'm sure it was my idea, but it's probably shot some life But we put a manger in our front yard every year. We're not we're not we're not Chevy Chase You know, we don't do it up really big with lights or anything, but we put up we put a manger in our front yard I mean, it's pretty ragged looking.
It's probably similar to the ones. He's a boy and it's got bird poop on it It's got all kinds of stuff, you know, it's just without the weather It's just it's just a wooden structure nothing fancy and Sean makes it look good with lights and you know Greenery and stuff like that and we put it out there under our tree in the front yard and every Christmas morning That's the first thing we do once everybody's up and ready to kind of do stuff on Christmas And we've been doing this since our kids were little And it started out that the present in the manger was a book and it was really easy when they were little because there was all kinds Of great kids books you could give them and stuff like that And but now that they've gotten older I would kind of try to give them more substantial stuff or whatever and a book that they can really dive into and read for themselves and This year we all got last year we did this to we did a different one last year We did like a one-year Bible for all four of us this year we did this new morning Mercy's diva thing and I Just want to read you January one just just part of it before we read our our text for today So he says this Life is simply not about us. It is about God his plan his kingdom and his glory This is precisely why the first four words of the Bible may be its most important words in the beginning God These are for thunderously important words They really do change everything from the way that you think about your identity meaning and purpose to the way that you approach even the most incidental of human duties Everything that was created was made by God and for God All the glories of the created world were designed to point to his glory the universe is his Designed to function according to his purpose and plan that includes you and me We were not made live independent self-directed lives Sorry America. We were not meant to exist according to our own little self-oriented plans Despite what social media tells living for our own moments of glory.
No We were created to live for him Solid solid stuff and the the song they pick a different text every day for that and that one was song 15 and You know, I'm a preacher some supposed to say this, but I've read all the songs, you know But but I mean honestly, you know, I mean I can't how can you remember them all with 150 of whatever means is a lot Everybody's got their favorites But some 115 I mean I looked at my Bible my actual, you know hard copy Bible and I had some stuff highlighted in song 115 So that's proof I read it at least once but I don't know if I remembered it But I want to read it to you today Not to us Lord not to us But to your name be the glory because of your love and faithfulness Why do the nations say where is their God? Our God is in heaven. He does whatever pleases him But their idols are silver and gold made by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak eyes But cannot see they have ears but cannot hear noses but cannot smell they have hands but cannot feel They cannot walk but they have feet nor can they utter a sound with their throats Those who make them these idols Will be like them and so will all who trust in them Think about the power in that those who craft those idols that have feet but can't walk have ears but can't hear Have hands but can't really feel You trust in those idols.
You will be like them. All you is or lights trust in the Lord He is their help and shield house of Aaron trust in the Lord. He is their help and shield you who fear him trust in the Lord He is their help and shield the Lord remembers us and will bless us He will bless his people Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.
He will bless those who fear the Lord small and great alike May the Lord cause you to flourish both you and your children now you'd be blessed by the Lord the maker of heaven and earth The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to mankind We say that one again. We're gonna talk about it in a minute the highest heavens belong to the Lord But the earth he has given to mankind Given it's not the dead who prays the Lord those who go down to the place of silence. It is we Who extol the Lord of now and forever more hallelujah? Is we who prays the Lord is we live them up now in our quest for life and in the way we live We don't really get this not to us not to us a Lord because we think us us us We just came off this season where it's the land of stuff and what I get Unfortunately, we live in a society where we we scramble and we and we try to get all that we can Not to us But to you be the glory we miss that a lot of times because we beat our own chest and we're so proud Even some of the things that happen to me like and I know this stuff right like like I've had multiple conversations with my wife Shauna about just like this baseball retreat.
I've got all these other guys. I don't know coming in there I'm like hey man. These baseball guys. These are my dudes.
I can't be messing them up and stuff like that I mean that's so stupid They keep you've got it so much bigger than that Our like these four boys that are getting baptized two of them I'm really close to and I ain't there today. I'm not the one baptizing as a preacher It's like oh But the kingdom of God is so much bigger than that. I'm just one dude, but you got me the glory, right? They say where is their God?
That's what the Psalm says like all the nations say where is your God? If you're God so good Why is he protecting you if you're God so good? Why do you have problems? You got so good.
Why is he answering all your prayers? I mean there's Old Testament Profit challenges and all kinds of stuff going on when that kind of language is written Prove it if you're God is so good And we just we we focus on what we can see we have to have these tangible things We base our lives on on tangible like results and Understandably so right. I mean I like to eat tangible food I kind of like to sleep in a tangible bed. I can see it I can feel it It helps to drive a tangible automobile to get places My marriage works because I have a tangible wife.
I can see her I could be around her We want I mean that's this is how it is But our worship like our life's devotion like what matters the most That's a little more complex I mean we can't see God in that way and that's why the nation say where's your God and see we get into these problems because We sort of worship the things we can see sometimes we worship people We worship our things. I mean I don't bow down to my 2009 toyota Tacoma, but you know I mean I remember when I got it I was super proud you know, I like it You know, we don't you know, we don't sing songs to these things necessarily. I sometimes we do we worship Sometimes created things instead of the creator Paul wrote about that in Romans the human kind They they they trade the truth of God for a line they worship and serve created things rather than the creator We get messed up a lot Because we like the things that we can see that we can touch that we can grab hold of it gives us security This God in the highest heavens that we can't see sometimes that's just a hard deal We have to learn to look for him in the ways that he really is And one thing I think is so cool about Emmanuel God with us if you go through that whole list We just read in Psalm 115 they have ears where they can't hear they have no just where they can't smell hands But again with Jesus at all of that God in human form He is who we look to now, you know, theoretically doesn't live next door to you right now or whatever But when Chad says all that stuff about Jesus the word became flesh moved into our neighborhood He's not making that stuff up and when I said that before like Jesus said greater things you will do Like we look and we see Jesus in each other We don't worship each other, but we recognize the greatness of God in one another and we worship that We have praised that Yeah, sometimes it's hard to see Sometimes life just smacks us with something we can see really evidently and it sucks it hurts but that doesn't mean it's Greater than us and it sure doesn't mean it's greater than our God the The cool thing that I didn't tell you about the story about the kid the player earlier that embraced the coach there at the end So after all that happened The dude that was kind of leading the discussion He had he had spoken earlier and he had talked about and I knew it was gonna happen when he started talking He talked about his days as a player He's a former player and how he didn't get the play like he wanted to and he kind of had a conversation with a coach And just walked away from it when he had another year of eligibility left on so he had a conversation about his identity And I knew that was gonna connect with this kid as soon as it came out of that guy's mouth and then sure enough, you know Everybody's out there playing cornhole and kind of taking a break and I look up on the hillside and that kid's talking to that same guy That former player so then after this discussion He turns to me says hey, you know you told me that one of your things was just you know your mom prays to this God But this God never answers your prayers And he said I want you to think about what just happened in this room all these guys around you God just answered your prayer Wow, I mean I went to seminary right. I know the Bible that dude that was prophetic To put that together for this kid He's never gonna forget that God answers the prayers It's just not always in the way that we think he's gonna and it's not in this tangible massively Godlike way, you know It's not just incredible image of gold or whatever Remember what's it say sometimes, you know that it's the small voice the the still small voice that was heard in the cave, right?
Not the storm not the fire not the wind the small voice The whisper the quiet in the every day, but Jesus in the manger pretty every day pretty basic stuff That's our God as the song goes on. There's a couple of of more key things. I Just want to read it again. We already read it, but Verse 14 says made a lord caused you to flourish you and your children may cause you to increase whatever You know there's different words for different translations, but I think sometimes when we think about this whole deal of flourishing We think about all these wonderful things that can happen in this life Like when we think of our children flourishing we think well though He'll be the starting quarterback, you know or or you know our children flourishing well They'll they'll you know get a you know incredible job Maybe that flourish isn't the same way that we often think about it and what the world recognizes Think about that the Psalmist writes may you and your children flourish.
What would that mean for you and your family like right now? Like if you really think about it. Oh, it means that your life flourishes Does it mean you're gonna get so many likes on Instagram or whatever? Does it mean you're gonna get the next promotion?
Does it mean that your daughter's gonna be voted? Most likely to be awesome or whatever in school What does it mean for you and your family to really flourish? Think about that in terms of things that matter It was cool being one of the themes we heard this weekend from different players like it doesn't matter about wins and losses It's just really funny to sit around here that you know cuz I know in a month what other things will be said You know but but but though to be in that moment though where they do go. Yeah, this is bigger than wins and losses This is bigger than baseball you and your family flourishing Everybody's family like I don't care who you are I don't care if you're the director of the Wesley Foundation or whoever you are your family is gonna have ups and downs Some of them are your own fault.
Some of them are somebody else's fault. Some of them are nobody's fault at all We live in a broken world. So what would it mean for you and your family to flourish in this broken world? Recognizing that we can't see God in the tangible way of these idol worshipers Recognizing that God is God and not us and it's not about his and it's not about our glory But it's about his so to God be the glory, right?
To God be the glory And what does it mean for you and your family to flourish? Really think about that as you move into this week. I mean unpack that and and talk about that What does it mean to flourish? Pray that prayer this week for your family for those around you for those your closest to for your tribe that they would flourish With this understanding that our God is in the highest heavens and he's Lord of all into him to glory another piece of it This might be the very last line in the Psalm Maybe there's two more Yeah, okay.
So verse 16 says the heavens belong to God, right? But the earth he has given right as we said a minute ago. He's given to mankind So this this is our gift We didn't earn it. We sure the heck didn't make it.
It is a gift This thing that's happening as I'm breathing that that's a gift Stirling to Louisiana is God's gift the earth. He has given to mankind You know when you give your kid a gift, you know, especially if it's a nicer gift You're always kind of worried about what they're gonna do to it, right? How are they gonna screw this up? I hope not and sometimes it's almost like well, it's theirs They got to do with it.
What are they gonna do? I had a bicycle That I had gotten like Well, we've lived here since 2007. I bought it sometime between 2000 and 2007 So a long time mountain bike we used to ride a lot more where we live before we were up in a hilly part of the world and So I didn't ride as much here, but I'm still kept it I wrote it from time to time I wrote it on campus it had been loaned out to students over the years and then my son became a college student and And I said well, you know, I mean you live in the dorm you ride a bike to class You know you have to move your truck, you know save your gas save your time. You don't walk over it.
Yeah, I'll do that Yeah, I like that. Yeah, I'll do that before Christmas my bike was gone It was just stolen left unlocked, you know, just like oh man. I just like forever, you know It's God. I gave it to you.
I thought you take care of it. I thought you keep it good Sometimes I wonder if that's how God is I gave you all of this What are you doing? It's a gift is a gift. What are we doing?
What are we doing with what we've given? I'm in some ways the nerdiest of all nerds and above our Door to our carport is a quote from Gandalf the Grey from the Lord of the earnings trilogy And it says all we have to decide is what to do with the time that has given us It sounds really cool when I'm in my Gandalf outfit and I say it last part and this is the part that Well, obviously it's all important. It's in the Bible, but it's not the dead who prays the Lord It's not the dead Somebody brought this up about Kobe Bryant dying at the retreat and they're talking about it He said man I never heard anything about Kobe and his faith until he died He's like how sad is that I don't know? I mean, I don't know anything about Kobe Bryant.
I know he was but it's not the dead Who praised the Lord? And sometimes I think that's that's really when we really focus in on this whole God is bigger than us and you know Eternal picture is when somebody dies I was like always real now the dead don't praise him Not in the way that we can and specifically when it says dead there It means those who are separated from God the ones that go to the place of silence And I think maybe the Psalmist took that in in meaning Yeah, you're dead you don't speak anymore, but also to think about it too in the terms of forever silence. It's not the dead Who prays the Lord? It's not the dead who get to do something with this gift.
It's living. It's us It's we who extol the Lord who prays the Lord who give him the glory Not to us to him be the glory so as you move and live and breathe and think this week This is your opportunity to praise God. This is your opportunity So when the nation say where is your God? Well, let me tell you when the tangible garbage smacks you around this week He prays the God that we can't always see in those ways and you look for him in the ways that he is real Because he can see he can feel he does hear us He does speak and he does move He's not an idle carved out of wood and stone this stand still and to get all Jesus He on you he walked every step of the healed of Calvary.
He gave the gift to us And just like he throws disciples You're gonna do even greater things. So what do you do with the gift you've been given? Let's pray as we get ready to worship for one more song Father, we thank you so much that you in fact have given us this gift of life and you give us this gift of community in this church And we thank you God that you don't leave us where we are and you sure the heck don't leave our prayers unanswered We just sometimes we sometimes don't expect it because we want the tangible result We want the thing that feels good in the moment that makes us better in our minds But that's the problem. It's all about us so much And God I pray that you would restore us to a place where where we see that it's bigger than us I pray that we would not wait till we're dead to try to praise you We would seize the moment and praise the living God while we are still living So that the world would know so that our families would know so that our neighbors would know they'd look around and they see This living God in us here as we sing the song praise to you