10/16/11

We are starting a brand new series today called Weird based on a book I read recently by a pastor named Craig Groeschel.  He’s an awesome pastor who has challenged me a lot not just by what he preaches, but the way he lives his life for God’s glory.

I think if most of us are being honest, one of the values we all hold is to fit in.  We all want to be “normal.”  None of us want to be odd or different.  None of us walk into a room hoping not to fit in.  I know I really struggled with this when I was your age and even into high school and college.  I was really driven by trying to be normal.  And I knew that as a Christian I was called to be different, but I didn’t want to be too different you know.  No one wants to be that radical, weird Christian that takes their faith too seriously, right?  Or would that be wrong?

As I’ve grown in my relationship with Jesus and really made an effort to read the Bible and study who Jesus was and how Jesus lived, I discovered that the teachings of Jesus were weird.  I mean they are so weird, so different than the normal that I was used to, that it really intrigued me.  There were these desires in me that said, “Now that sounds like an exciting, but scary life.”  Reading how Jesus lived and what He called His disciples to.  And then it hit me – I was reading the Bible and hearing radical and weird things, but not applying them.  So I prayed to Jesus to change my life so that I wouldn’t be what the world would consider normal.  I wanted to be weird – weird in a good, Biblical kind of way.

How many of you know there are some weird people, that they’re not weird in the right kind of way? How many of you know somebody who is weird in a bad way? Go, raise your hand! Don’t point to them, just raise your hand, okay? How many of you know somebody who is weird in a good way? Somebody who is weird in a good way? I’m not even talking about that, what we are going to talk about in this series is how we be weird in a God kind of way.

If you find yourself just going with the flow, living like everyone else, then I’m going to pray God would capture your heart through the words of Jesus. Matthew 7:13-14

Think about this; broad and wide is the road and gate which the majority of the people travel. Unfortunately, in the crowd, that’s where we often find comfort saying, Look at all of the people doing what we are doing, going where we are going, living how we’re living; we’re normal! We must be okay because this is where the majority of the crowd is going.  Unfortunately though, Jesus said, many – the crowd, we could say the normal people are on the road that leads to destruction.

If you are on the broad road, let me just say this as seriously as I can: If your life looks like everybody else’s life, if you’re doing what everyone else is doing, if you are pretty normal, it could be that you are on the broad road that leads to destruction. Because when you leave the normal road to get on the smaller one where the few are, the normal people think you’re weird, you’re different, your life does not look the same.

I want to invite you to follow the teachings of Jesus and lead a weird life. Because even if we take the Bible aside and just look at this practically, wouldn’t you agree that normal is not working? Think about it, what is normal in your schedules today? Overwhelmed, rushed, stressed, panicked, never enough time for what’s truly important because we’re overwhelmed with the urgent and missing out on the quality.

If you want what normal people have, do what normal people do.
If you want what few people have, do what few people do.

Think about it; if you want a normal life live like normal people live. If though, you want something better, if you really believe there is something different and better than the normal life where the majority of the people are traveling, you’ll have to leave the broad road, get onto the narrow path where people will call you weird. And if you want what few have; peace, joy, security, a sense of fulfillment, an eternal destiny. If you want what few have, you’re going to have to do what only a few will do.   So let me give you some truths about weird middle schoolers.

1.  Weird middle schoolers don’t think like normal middle schoolers think.
When you see something you want, don’t go just copy what other people do. Here’s what the Bible says in Romans 12:2  I love the way The Message, which is kind of a different version, says it, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. Not on everybody else, but on God and you’ll be changed from the inside out.”

See if you are a Christian middle schooler, then your life ought to look very differently than that of a “normal” middle schooler.  There ought to be something weird about you.  Because Christianity is weird – it’s different.  It’s not normal.  It doesn’t sync up with the culture we live in.

So what does it look like to be a weird middle schooler?  Well some of the things we will look at in this series will be things like: time, money, relationships and values.  Because the Bible teaches us to look at those things differently.  The world says one way is normal and the Bible says the opposite.  Which are you going to believe?  If you are going to believe God through His Word to us, the Bible, then you will be weird.  And that’s awesome!

You may say, “Well Pastor Todd, why is this so important?”  Ready?  Catch this: The way you think determines the way you behave. And what you think determines what you become.  See I want you guys to see a link between what you think and who you are becoming and how you are behaving.  We are bombarded with messages all the time.  That is why we are constantly presenting God’s Word to you and encouraging you guys to get into God’s Word, to read it, to memorize it.  You are all getting tons of different messages everyday.  What are you going to believe?  Our culture spends over 2 billion dollars are year on advertising to teens.  What are they trying to do?  Influence they way you behave and what you buy.  They are trying to sell you on what is normal.  And if you aren’t careful, you will buy into it in the hopes of being normal like everyone else.  All the while God’s Word is calling out to us… “Be different.  Be radical.  Be weird.  Don’t fit in to the world.”

2.  Weird middle schoolers don’t live like normal middle schoolers live.
When you take Scripture seriously, let me say it again, when you take Scripture seriously and you pursue God, you will be different from this world. If you’re not different; if you look like everybody else, act like everybody else, live like everybody else, I submit to you, you may not truly know the God of this Bible. Because the more you pursue Him, the more different from this world you will be. Your values will change, what motivates you will change, and the way you live will change. Peter said this, 1 Peter 2:11-12

In other words, you know, if this world is your home you might as well do whatever you want, whatever you feel like, because that’s normal. But you, you’re not going to be normal.  God says, I want you to live such a weird life here in this world that they think you are doing wrong – they think you are crazy because you are so weird.  But remember, we aren’t being weird just for weird’s sake – that’s ridiculous.  We are being weird so that the world – our friends – would see our weird life and glorify God.  They would be impacted by the Gospel as we live it in such a way that they would become weird!  Because when they see you seek the God of this Bible and they see you living a life that is very different – it impacts those who are normal.

I’m telling you, God wants to make you weird! He wants to take you out of normal and bring something that is totally different. But let me just encourage you, don’t copy someone else’s weird!  See how God wants to wire you to be weird and live that weird out for His glory!

You may live with this deep sense of spiritual drive, where you’re doing things that don’t make sense to anyone else. Why? Because you’re not driven by what other people think, you are living only for an audience of one, you are living for a Holy God.

So let’s leave the normal road, because you have to admit, normal is not working. It’s broke, it’s overwhelmed, it’s miserable, it’s fear, it’s shame, it’s regret, and it doesn’t have to be that way. It can be full of peace and joy and purpose and momentum, and a deep sense of fulfillment, and knowing that your life is making an eternal difference.

I have to say honestly, I’m sick of normal Christianity! I am sick of lukewarm, mediocre, half-hearted, go to church and not be any different.  It’s just this empty sense of risk nothing, sacrifice nothing, come to a church or student ministry that is all fun and meets my needs and just makes me feel good.  I can’t find that in the Bible anywhere.  Instead, I read things like Luke 9:23-24  That’s weird!

I’m telling you, you can go to come to everything we offer here in our middle school ministry.  And that’s great, but that’s even pretty normal.  It’s cool to go to church and be involved in a student ministry.  But weird is when worship for you becomes a seven day-a-week passion, that’s when you become the God kind of weird.  We are not talking about a just when I’m at church, shallow, me-centered Christianity.  We are talking about a whole-hearted, full surrender to the God of this Bible that will take you off of the normal path and lead you onto one that the world will not understand, but God will empower and direct.  You can settle for normal, or you can chose something better than normal. If you want what normal people have, do what normal people do.  If you want what few have, leave the normal path and I invite you to a journey with the God kind of weird.

TO THINK ABOUT