The Interruptability of Jesus

Speaker 1 (00:02):

Hi, I'm Brian Mosley, our team here at RightNow Media loves serving the church. We believe the mission of the church matters and the discipleship matters. Whether you're watching this message alone or with your leadership team, we hope that it's an encouragement to you. Lisa Harper brought passion and humor to her session where she reminded us of the importance of being interruptible.

Speaker 2 (00:28):

I used to live in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I worked fora ministry called Focus on the Family. For years, I loved working for Focus except for their dress code. I couldn't wear open toed shoes because somebody had told Dr. Dobson that the line between a woman's big toe and second toe was reminiscent of cleavage. And so if I wore sandals, I could cause men to stumble all of you under forties. I just want to encourage you. You think church is hard. You ain't seen nothing yet, baby. Anyway, I loved being on staff at Focus, and while I lived out in Colorado, I got into trail running and my favorite trail was not too far from the ministry headquarters, it was called Pulpit Rock Park. And there was this trail about a two and a half mile trail through the stand of evergreen pine trees all the way up to an alpine meadow.

Speaker 2 (01:23):

And if you got that meadow, you could look west and there was Pike's Peak and Pike's Peak. I don't know how often you've been to Colorado Springs, but that's Pike's Peak was what was the impetus for the song America the beautiful. It is stunning. Even in July, it's always shrouded with snow at the top. And so when I had had a particularly hard week in ministry, I know y'all don't experience that because you have RightNow to keep you encouraged, but I sometimes would bump up against hateful Christians. And so when that happened, I'd go to the park and I would run other than say words that aren't in the Bible, I would run to get out my frustration, and then when I'd get tothat mountain meadow, I would just kind of soak in God's presence. Any of y'all old enough to remember the Calgon commercial calgon?

Speaker 2 (02:12):

Take me away. That was kind of my calgon take me away moment was to get to that alpine meadow. Well, the last couple of months I was on staff at folks in the family. I decided to go to seminary, so I'd be less of a here and move back to Nashville, Tennessee where people talk correctly. And the last couple of months I was on staff at Focus, the newspapers and television stations started reporting about criminal activity in Pulpit Rock Park, and they said multiple women had been attacked by a violent perpetrator. They weren't sure if it was one man or several men, but they began very clearly and sincerely warning women against hiking, biking, or running on the trails in Pulpit Rock Park. And I thought, man, that's my favorite place to go and just decompress and marinate in God's. And so one of the last weekends I lived inColorado Springs, I thought, it's just so beautiful today.

Speaker 2 (03:07):

No humidity, blue sky, bright sun. Surely all of the criminals are not going to perpetrate crime today. It's just too pretty for a crime day. And I thought, I'm going to risk it and I'm going to go to the park and get one last run in on my favorite trail. And so I pull into the parking lot. There's only one other car in the parking lot. I get out of my car, I walk to the trail head. There are two signs on either side of the trail, very clearly warning against being on these trails until the Colorado Springs police apprehended the criminal. But I thought, oh, I'm fine today. I can ignore the signs today. So I start running that trail. I'm singing hymns. I live in Nashville, but I can't carry a tune in a bucket. That's why I get to do bible studies at all the record companies.

Speaker 2 (03:53):

They know I won't give them me peace. I cannot sing, so I usually do it by myself in the woods. And so I'm singing, I'm running up through these pine trees. It's glorious. I get to the top of the meadow right before I step out from behind this big pine tree. I stop dead in my tracks because from about me to you gentlemen in the turquoise shirt. And this has nothing more to do with you. You're just a prop. So please hear me. I am throwing no shade. It's totally based on the distance. What's your name, sir? Greg. Greg. I'll give you all the chocolate in my purse afterwards, pastor Greg. But from about the distance from me to Pastor Greg, there was a naked man and I thought, oh, you got to be kidding me. I was being all spiritual. I was singing hymns and I run smack into the criminal in his birthday suit, and then I realized, oh, crud, I'm in trouble.

Speaker 2 (04:48):

I left my cell phone in the car where I'm running is a wilderness area. The sun was just about to set, and I thought I could scream as loud as I could scream, and nobody could hear me up here. I haven't seen anybody else. And I thought, oh, goodness gracious. What should I do? Now, Mr.Nudity had not noticed me yet because I was mostly behind this big pine tree. And when I'm nervous or I feel scared or in danger, I'm like it. And please don't take pictures of me from the waist down or I will punch you in the throat, sir. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Mostly, mostly kidding. But use the filter. Use a really good filter.

Speaker 2 (05:31):

You are so kind. I'm sorry. I promise all Americans are not this rude. I get like a junior high boy on caffeine. I just get anxious and just get nervous and my mind just goes 90 miles an hour. And I thought, oh no.Oh no. What do I do? What do I do? Because if I turn around, I run back down, he sees me, he'll chase me, he can catch me in the woods and nobody would see.I mean my mind's going 90 nothing. And in that chaotic mental space, I only had two clear thoughts. One thought was I had seen on Oprah or Dr. Phil that men who expose themselves are typically cowards and non confrontive. So I had that one thought. And then the second thought came from one of my hiking magazines.I love to hike and in one of my hiking magazines, it instructed you if you came upon a wild animal while you were on a hike in a wilderness area, unless it was a bear, don't do this with a bear, but unless it was a bear, it would behoove you when you confronted a wild animal like a bobcat to raise your hands over your head and advance toward the wild animal, slowly speaking in deep guttural tones because then that scares the animal.

Speaker 2 (06:42):

They think you're a bigger batter animal. And so those two thoughts formed what I'm going to call logic with you, wonderful godly people who don't need to hear a story this traumatizing this early in the morning, but I jumped out from behind the Ponderosa to pine tree and I started running toward not this pastor, but just a man who was sitting about that far away who was in his birthday suit. I started running toward him going, Hey, just as guttural as I could, and it worked y'all because he jumped up obviously petrified and started sprinting in the opposite direction. And when he started sprinting in the opposite direction, I noticed sadly for the first time that he was actually wearing these very, very small running shorts.

Speaker 2 (07:33):

You know when real serious runners wear those little short shorts that are slit up the side ladies, if your husband wears those, they are not biblically defensible. They are trashy, trashy, trashy because when the guy sits down that split will splay, and I promise he looked so naked from the way he was sitting in the splay. I just would've put money on the fact that he was in his birthday suit. But when I came toward him with my arms up speaking in deep guttal tones, I scared him, he sprinted in the opposite direction in those tiny blue shorts, and he kept looking over my shoulder, his shoulder terrifiedI was going to attack him, and I got so tickled. I thought, he's probably a pastor up here, like marinating in God's word, going over his next message and this yay who big girl comes out of nowhere and starts to attack him.

Speaker 2 (08:32):

Y'all scaring innocent men loitering in Mount Meadows. It is mild compared to the damage we do when we turn our blurry perspective toward Jesus turning a blurry perspective toward Jesus as Christ followers. Man, it can get the whole train off the tracks. How clearly are you seeing Jesus during this chapter of your ministry? I want to talk about a character of Christ that I missed for a long, long, long time. If you brought your Bibles, turn to Mark chapter 10, the gospel of Mark chapter 10 10 verse 46. Hey baby. Hey mom. Yeah, I'm sorry about a little fight yesterday morning. That's totally okay. That's all right. I love you. I love you too. Okay, you can go sit down. Yes, thank you. You are welcome. That's my daughter, Melissa Price Harper. I became a mom through the miracle of adoption the year I turned 50.

Speaker 2 (09:40):

So I went through menopause and motherhood at the exact same time, and I asked her to do that. Y'all felt awkward for just about three seconds, didn't you? You're like, oh my heavens. Who is that child coming up to interrupt the mornings speaker? We did that on purpose because one of the characteristics of Christ I want to talk about is not just the pace of his ministry. He did ministry at three miles an hour because he walked everywhere he went and Jesus was super naturally interruptible. People always were the pinnacle of his ministry. People always rated over program and protocol and platform. Jesus was perfectly interruptible. Sometimes we get so consumed by the business of ministry by excellent ethics that our foundation gets wobbly. Our foundation has to always be other image bearers. Our foundation has to always be people. People over program, people over process, people over platform.

Speaker 2 (10:59):

Mark chapter 10 quickly. So to turn in Jesus' ministry, he's been encountering people, been in compassionate ministry, he's made a turn at Jericho, he's headed toward the cross. He's headed toward what scholars will call the passion of the Christ. That doesn't mean his emotions are elevated. He hasn't had a double shot from Starbucks. It just means he's made the turn toward what he knows is his life's purpose. He's told us that right before this happens, I didn't come to be served, but I came to serve to give my life as a ransom for many. He's headed to Jerusalem and right there as he's headed toward Jerusalem, there's an interruption. There's a crowd that gathers and the crowd is a religious crowd, but not necessarily a believing crowd. They got the Facebook forwards. They heard that this rabbi from Nazareth is doing all kinds of healings, that paralytics are doing cartwheels after they encounter Yeshua, this rabbi, redneck rabbi from a town with 300 people.

Speaker 2 (11:58):

So they're just curious. People turn out in hoards to see what he will do, not necessarily believing he's the Christ. And a crowd forms here in Mark chapter 10 just to basically because they're curious. And there's a guy at the very back of the crowd sitting on the curb. He's one of the few people in the gospels whom Jesus heals, whose named his name is Bart. And as Jesus is passing by in the crowd, Bart cries out Bellows good Texas boy probably ate brisket. He bellows, son of David, have mercy on me. Okay? What's significant about Bart calling Jesus the son of David? I'm not a pastor. Young talk back grew up half Baptist, so you call me a pastor, I just go straight into hives.

Speaker 2 (12:54):

Pardon me, exactly. It's prophetic. Bart knew that the prophecy, the Hebrew scriptures said that the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one would come through the lineage of David, which was shocking because all of the other priests came through the Levitical priesthood. So for him to say Son of David, he's acknowledging, I believe you are the Christ. I believe you're the anointed one. Well, the crowd, remember they're like us. They're a religious crowd, probably a whole lot of crop pants and quilted Bible covers among that crowd. So the crowd says, Bart hush, we don't want him to think badly of our town. Goodness gracious, we're Jericho, not Jerusalem. We don't even have a mall here. There's no Starbucks. The wifi is spotty, don't make it any worse than it already is. And it says they tell Bart to hush. The word there in the original text is so much more powerful than it is in our English translations. In verse 48, in the English it says, many rebuke Tim in the Greek translation, the original text, that word is epi. It means to command with the implication of a threat. In other words, if you don't shut up, we're going to shut you up. And that's the religious crowd. Why are they trying to shut Bart up?

Speaker 2 (14:14):

Because he doesn't fit, because he's needy in their culture. He's ostracized because he has an ongoing medical condition. And remember in John's gospel, when even the disciples asked Jesus, who sinned this blind guy or his parents, he's a wart on the skin of religiosity, and they go,sh, just fold into the background, Bart. It's stunning. First of all, that Bart cries out all the more, doesn't pay them any attention. Here's the thing about intimacy with Jesus. I've learned I as a 60-year-old woman, if you spend more time courting the applause of people, even Christian people than you do leaning into the love of Jesus, you'll get crooked real fast and you'll be shocked by how far you've drifted from your first love. The applause of people has got to be way, way, way, way down on your list. It's not about nickels and noses. It's first about our personal intimacy with Jesus and then it's about sharing the hope, sharing the grace, sharing the redemption that we've tasted.

Speaker 2 (15:31):

The catalyst for evangelism is personal gratitude to be undone that he called us in the first place. The fact that any of us have a microphone or a platform is pure grace. Pure grace, we don't earn that. We don't sustain that. And if you forget what a good God he is, I don't care how big your ministry is, it will be hollow and it will soon crumble from some type of moral failure or burnout. You've got to remember what a good God we have. He loves us. He's for us. He's not against us. They're so consumed with religiosity and appearance that they try to put a bandaid on what they perceive to be a wart in their midst. You've all got all people in your congregations who are needy, you all have all got people who come to the altar every week and you're like, oh my heavens, we've prayed with her 752 times.

Speaker 2 (16:28):

Who's going to pray when they're in this Sunday? It's going to be the same old thing our people, the priority of your ministry.Still, what's stunning here is Jesus is on his way to Easter and there's this phraseology and it says, and Jesus stopped. He stopped. He's on his way to Easter. That's his purpose, and he effectively puts Easter on pause to engage with this one person whom no one else will give the time of day. Perfectly interruptible. Similar story in Luke 13. I won't take the time to go there, but there's a woman who's been bent over for 18 years. Scholars concur that she had a serious case of spinal stenosis. She can't stand up, she can't hug her kid, she can't lie down comfortably, and she comes into temple and y'all know this. She's not allowed to be in the place of temple where Jesus is preaching because it's testosterone only if you read between the lines of historicity.

Speaker 2 (17:40):

Luke doesn't spell this out, but the other gospels do.This is the very last time Jesus is preaching publicly in a synagogue prior to the crucifixion and the resurrection. So if you're a country music fan, I'm from Nashville, so you better be here. I'll kick you in the shins. This is like the very last song of the very last set of the Lord's George Strait farewell tour. I mean, this is it. This is the very last time incarnate Christ is preaching in a synagogue and the woman interrupts him because based on the original text, the way he greets her is he's surprised by her appearance. So she wasn't just sitting on a back pew when he started the message. How many of y'all are under 40?

Speaker 2 (18:30):

A pew is a long wooden bench we used to sit on before we got cup holders and cushions. They used to want us to hurt in worship. She wasn't sitting in the back. When Jesus started, she interrupted. Listen to this. She's a woman. She's not allowed to be there. She's got an ongoingmedical condition, so let's assume there's un con confessing in her life. She's not allowed to be where rah is being preached. That is just a huge no-no in orthodox Judaism. She interrupts Emmanuel in the middle of his very last public sermon in a synagogue. It's a wonder Jesus didn't go, ma'am. Goodness gracious.What in the world were you thinking? I'm the Christ. You're crooked.

Speaker 2 (19:22):

If you'll just go out to the foyer, there's a WJD table, they'll give you a T-shirt and they'll give you a bracelet and take your email address. Someone will get in touch with you. That's not what he does. He stops preaching. He's got the muckety mucks there of he stops preaching and he gets down off the platform. There's probably only one step where he's standing in front of Moses' seat and he walks toward this bent over woman and he says to her, come closer, come closer. People are never an interruption to our Jesus. Never. People are never an interruption to Jesus. They always proceed. Program and process and platform. How important are the people in your congregation? If he's called us to be shepherds, don't you think we should smell like sheep? Turn to Acts chapter three, another one of my favorite passages about our posture as leaders Acts chapter three.

Speaker 2 (20:45):

You know this story now, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, and a man lame from birth was being carried out whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate. To ask alms of those entering the temple, seeing Pete andJohn about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms and Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John and said, look at us. And he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christof Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong and leaping up.

Speaker 2 (21:27):

He stood and began to walk and he entered the temple with them walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognizing him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened to him. Amazement Zo. They were amazed. Same kind of amazement. The shepherds had same kind of amazement the disciples had whenJesus spoke and the wind and the waves were quiet. I love this story. I used to skip over the beautiful gate part of it. I thought it was just a geographical detail, but I've been to Israel now four times. Beautiful gate is not just a geographical detail, it's the eastern gate. It's where Ezekiel prophesize that we'll see the second advent. I don't mean to be facetious, but when I was there this spring for the fourth time, it always tickles me just a little bit at the graveyard that ungodly people have put in front of the eastern gate thinking that they'll stop Jesus being an Orthodox Jew because they know Jews can't have anything to do with dead bodies, and I always want to go you he can fly.

Speaker 2 (22:38):

That's not not going to stop him. Ezekiel says he will come right there at the eastern gate. It sit on the Mount of Olives and look at it today. It was walled up in the 15 hundreds by the longest reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire to block prophecy Eastern gate the gate. Beautiful. That's God's front porch. It's his front porch. And this guy's been sitting there forever and people worship day in and day out, and they're stepping over him to get to the busyness of worship instead of noticing the person on the porch who's sitting on the porch of your ministry. Have you gotten so preoccupied with process ins, systems, and an acrostic to wrap around your next sermon that you're missing the cripple on the porch, God's front porch? It's always been people. It's always been people. Once you've been lavish by the unconditional love of Jesus Christ, he says, the world will know your mind.

Speaker 2 (24:01):

How by the way, you love other people. I have a lot of pretend theological boyfriends, can't wait to get to glory and go to Olive Garden with Tozier and Spurgeon and a ke. But the one I cannot wait to walk around the new Jerusalem with the most is CS Lewis and CS Lewis says this, and this is how I'll close. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations cultures, arts civilizations. They are mortal and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat, but it is Immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit, immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. Our charity must be real and costly. Love next to the blessed sacrament itself. Your neighbor is the holiest object ever presented to your senses. I want to close with a question they taught me in grad school that you should never close a sermon with a question. And I said, well, I'm a woman so I don't preach, so I'm going to close with a question. This is not exegesis, by the way. This was all testimony. Here's the question, and if Holy Spirit prompts she to marinate in this, to chew on it for a while, boy, I think it would be so good for those of us who have been undeservedly called to vocational ministry to hang out here for a while. What is your ministry IQ, your interruptible quotient? What is your ministry IQ if you had to choose? And rarely does God make us choose, butif you had to choose between a shiny program and a dirty person, who would you pick?

Speaker 1 (26:32):

Lisa did a great job of reminding us how people-centeredJesus' ministry was and how interruptible he was. Take a moment to consider how people-centered your ministry is. What can you do to make yourself more interruptible? Pray that God will help you as you seek to minister to the people around you.