Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Hi everybody. Good morning.
[00:00:08] My name is Evan. I'm the other senior pastor. It's great to be with you. In part two of our messages around the vision of Westside, as we head towards the end of this year and into the next, someone asked Wayne Gretzky the secret of his success on the ice years and years ago. And he said, I don't skate to where the puck is. I skate to where it's going to be.
[00:00:28] And I think that's a great metaphor for vision, whether you're an athlete or on a team, an organization or part of a church.
[00:00:37] Without vision, what we will do is we'll stare at our feet and always focus on the problems of today and survival into the next week or month.
[00:00:47] And yet God calls us to have his vision, his vision that caused us to lift our eyes. The psalmist once wrote, I lift my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. My help comes from the Lord the heaven, or the Lord God of heavens and the earth. And so we have this invitation from Jesus to take on his vision for this community and what we will be in the future. And it lifts our head.
[00:01:12] I don't want to spend my life staring at my feet.
[00:01:14] I want to look forward to what God is doing and where he is leading us in the days ahead. And so today, as we have brought in these conversations and these faces of our global partnerships and what God is doing around the world, it's a reminder that we are not just a local church who cares a little about what is happening overseas, but we are a global movement called the Church.
[00:01:36] And we happen to be gathering here in this building in central Oregon. But we join with hundreds of thousands and millions of other congregations around the world in worship of Jesus and in following after his way. And we are connected. Two weeks ago when I shared a little bit about our time in Turkey last month with Pastor Mehmet between services, Pastor Brent text him and said hey, we're praying for your church during our services this morning it was the night before for him. So he got on our livestream and he's watching it in real time with his Google Translate app, translated it into Turkish and praying along for his church in real time as I'm praying from this stage. And so yeah, it's wonderful. And this is what it is. It's connection that we've never had before in the history of the world, in the history of the church where in real time. We are not just isolated groups of believers, but we are connected, all pursuing Jesus together and praying like Jesus taught us to pray. Lord, let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Not just my corner of the earth, but everywhere.
[00:02:37] And so we feel this and we feel this compelling invitation of Jesus to look beyond the four walls of this place. And I don't belittle or diminish all the wonderful things that we are doing through the ministries of this church and through you as volunteers and pastors and staff every week. It is incredible what God is allowing us to be conduits in for our city and for our congregation.
[00:03:03] But I read this quote from Pastor Morgan Cholulu from Zambia, and he said, a church that lives within its four walls is no church at all.
[00:03:15] We are compelled by the Gospel to look beyond our own needs and the needs of what is within this room to the world at large.
[00:03:25] And I know this, that the message that we bring and that we carry and that we connect to with those that are preaching all around the world. And by the way, as we looked at the map, I was just reminded of the good thing that God has done through this church, whether it be through the Sokoloff. Seth grew up in this church, came through our youth ministry. I remember him as a kid and the calling that was stirring in his heart. Now he's in the caucuses. I remember when Pastor Brent in Virginia were on staff here 20 years ago at Westside. And the leadership at that time sent them out to East Africa where they established bold ventures and raised up leaders to now lead and run the Island Leadership Network and the training school that is being built as we speak. I think about all these ways that God is not just moving here among us, but he is moving at large around the world and he's carrying this message of the gospel. And what is the message of the gospel?
[00:04:20] Well, a long time ago a there was a preacher and the founder of the Methodist Church named John WESLEY in the 1700s. And a man came to John Wesley distraught, finding that his faith was failing him. And so he said, all is dark. My thoughts are lost. Basically, I've lost vision for my life and my faith. But I hear that you preach to a great number of people every night and morning.
[00:04:47] So tell me, what would you do with them? Where would you lead them? What religion do you preach and what is it good for?
[00:04:55] Maybe you're visiting Westside for the first time today and you're asking some of these questions of us that's fair.
[00:05:01] Well, here's what Wesley said in response. He said, you ask, what would I do with them? I would make them virtuous and happy, easy in themselves and useful to others. And where would I lead them? To heaven, To God the judge, the lover of all, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. What religion do I preach? The religion of love. The law of kindness brought to light by the gospel. And what is it good for? To make all who receive it enjoy God in themselves, to make them like God, lovers of all, contented in their lives and crying out at their death in calm assurance, O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God who giveth me victory through my Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Come on. 1791. It still preaches today in 2025 that we have this calm assurance when we embrace the kind of gospel that Jesus came to announce.
[00:05:50] This is the religion that Wesley preached and so many have preached in that same vein. A kind of church that's not about laws or ceremonies that get you into belonging or some mystical knowledge of secret things that's exclusive to us. But instead of a Jesus shaped cross, shaped love and kindness that was modeled by Christ and is now exemplified and demonstrated in his church, it is a loving kindness that is self sacrificial and that every day aims not to see what we can get out of God, but to see how we can partner with him in his work of redeeming and restoring through the gospel.
[00:06:29] This is what we are about here at Westside Church. It is the complete transformation of us as individuals and of our community as Christ works through us.
[00:06:39] So this is the heart of our mission and our vision as a church. We have a mission statement which I think is a little silly because I think all churches everywhere should have the same mission, which is to extend the life and the love of Jesus that he purchased for us through the cross.
[00:06:56] And this kind of living and demonstrating the gospel is rooted in Jesus, his own words in Matthew 22, when a religious leader came to him and said, jesus, what do you think the greatest of all of God's commandments are?
[00:07:09] And this was a trick question because the religious leader is trying to trap Jesus in saying one of the commandments is greater than the other, so he can say, aha. So you think the other ones don't matter?
[00:07:19] Well, that's not what Jesus is going to say. And I've had these conversations right, well what do you think about this? Oh, well, if he says that, then he's saying that this doesn't matter. That's not the way of Jesus.
[00:07:30] So Jesus responds.
[00:07:32] He doesn't skirt around the question. He replies, in Matthew 22:37, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:07:47] All of the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments, all of the law and the prophets. And he's speaking to a guy who knows what all the law and the prophets says. And if you today want to go back and look in the first five books of the Bible, you will find a lot of law, a lot of what not to do, a lot of thou shalt nots. Don't covet, don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, don't take the Lord's name in vain.
[00:08:14] Don't covet your neighbor's wife. Don't covet your neighbor's donkey.
[00:08:19] We're going to have an altar call for those coveting donkeys after the service.
[00:08:24] There's a lot of do nots don'ts in the commands of God. When Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment of all is, he doesn't reach for a do not. He reaches for two dogs.
[00:08:34] He says, the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second, like it to love each other. For Jesus, somehow all of life and righteousness and holiness, all of pleasing God by following after his commandments, could be summed up and distilled into these two things. To love God and to love people.
[00:08:52] This is an invitation not to ignore the holiness of God or think that how we live or how we think or how we believe doesn't matter. It's to put the first thing first, which is to love God and to love people. If we miss, never ever get to the others.
[00:09:08] And yet if we live a faith that is embodied in the love of God and love for others, everything else will flow from that.
[00:09:15] And this is a love for God that can't be dictated. I can't tell you just to do is something that I as a leader have to demonstrate. And for the world around us, we can't dictate it unless we're demonstrating it.
[00:09:29] I remember when our that we'd had for a long time she died and then we went about a year and I was like, this is great. We can travel, we can leave the house for hours at a time. We never needed another dog. And my wife and the kids were like, we have to Have a dog.
[00:09:44] So I said, okay, fine, we'll get a dog. But this last dog was like my dog. She loved me. This next one is going to be your guys dog, Alyssa. Kids, you're going to take care of it. It's going to be buddies with you all that we get the dog.
[00:09:57] Less than a week in, I can tell this dog only loves me.
[00:10:02] And there is no way to convince her. You know, I could sit with Sadie and say, sadie, okay, what we've got is good, but you really need to focus all of your affection on Clara and all of your affection on Alyssa and Jack. And I'm gonna let you just connect with them. And she would say, no, you're here and we're together and that's all I'll ever need. I mean, this is the level of love that the dog has for me. And I think oftentimes when we think about the love that we have for God and for others, it's something that is better demonstrated than dictated, right? We can't just say, hey, world, you need to love God better. We have to demonstrate what it is to love God and to love each other. This is the heart of our community and our church.
[00:10:42] And this is what Jesus modeled when people were hurting. All throughout the Gospels we find people caught in sin and facing the consequences of their living. And always around these people, there were religious leaders who were quick to condemn and to accuse and to point out how far they had fallen from God's standard and holiness. And Jesus walks into these spaces and instead of condemning, which he would have had every right to do, Jesus continually and over and over again invites people who are fallen into sin and brokenness to step out of that, to walk away from that, not with condemnation, but with an invitation to something far greater, which was to follow after him in love for God and love for people.
[00:11:24] This is what God does through the work of Jesus in our church.
[00:11:28] I think it's probably true that the number one mistake, if you're wondering what the mistake is in how we engage with those outside of the faith, outside of these walls, in far off places that are not followers of Jesus, is that we would try to explain and enforce our Christian values instead of embodying the way that Jesus lived.
[00:11:51] And I know it's tempting, okay, we read scripture and we say, okay, here's the things that will fix those things. Now let's go out and let's explain it and enforce it.
[00:12:02] But Jesus walked around with his 12 disciples and the 120 or so others that would follow him.
[00:12:08] And he, instead of trying to enforce the coming of the kingdom, he announced it. And then he lived in such a way and said, come along and let's love God and love people the same way.
[00:12:18] So much so that the apostle John would write and he would say that this is the way that people will know that you are the disciples of Jesus and how you love one another.
[00:12:30] So we don't explain or enforce because that always will put the pressure to change and be transformed on somebody else, right?
[00:12:37] The challenge of Jesus is to embody his way and to accept that the challenge is actually for me to change my heart and mind to be challenged and transformed. And I hope that's why you come here.
[00:12:51] Oftentimes I think we come to church and it's like we're trying to load up with the ammunition to help fix somebody else in our life, right? Or we watch YouTube and we see some preacher on YouTube say something and you're like, oh, this is gonna be so good for my friend.
[00:13:06] So you grab that link and you email it on and you're just kinda passive aggressively thinking like, I hope they really internalize this and change.
[00:13:15] And I appreciate when you email me these links, it's great, but that is not the point.
[00:13:21] The point, even for me, for Pastor Ben, for all of us, is when we come in here and we open the words of Jesus and we look at the Gospels, we are saying, jesus, challenge me, transform my heart. I've got thoughts that are not of you. Change my mind, change my heart.
[00:13:37] That we are always allowing scripture and the community of faith to be a transformative, a conduit of God's transforming work in our own lives.
[00:13:52] I think this is discipleship. This is what Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter 16:24, when he turned to his disciples and he said, if anyone wishes to follow me as my disciple, he must deny himself, set aside selfish interest and take up his cross. Expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come and follow me, believing me, conforming to my example and living and if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in me.
[00:14:18] I wrote this down as a challenge for myself in the coming year. And maybe this is for you as well. But that every month, at least once, I will give something up, I will take something on and I'll change my mind.
[00:14:33] These three things, and really I believe this is the heart. This is the distillation of what Jesus is talking about. In Matthew chapter 16.
[00:14:42] He's saying to follow after me, to be my disciple. It's going to take you laying down Some things, some ways of thinking, some habits, some sins, some maybe relationships, some pieces of your life that are keeping you from following after me.
[00:15:00] You gotta give some things up and you have to take some things on.
[00:15:03] A willingness to say yes to what he is leading us into and what will happen along the way as we follow Jesus into discipleship, to becoming disciples of Jesus, is that he'll change our mind.
[00:15:15] You might be saying, you know, Evan, I haven't changed my mind since like 97. You know, it was a big year for me and now I'm good, right?
[00:15:24] I feel this way too. I've been in church my entire life. I've shared this before. They announced my birth from the platform at our church on Sunday morning.
[00:15:32] And here I am today. Just can't break free.
[00:15:37] And you know, being in the church your whole life, you hear all the sermons and you know, people say, I've heard all the sermons, I could probably preach them. And I'm literally preaching them right now.
[00:15:46] And there can be this feeling of like, I've got it all figured out. But here's the thing. To follow after Jesus is to be a disciple. And to be a disciple is to constantly be transformed and changed as we listen to our teacher.
[00:15:58] And so if we ever get to the point where we opt out of learning and changing our mind, we are actually opting out of our discipleship in the way of Jesus.
[00:16:07] And we will not be a church of former disciples. We just won't.
[00:16:12] And so we are leaning in and saying, every day or every month, God, change my mind about something, change my mind about you, change my mind about myself, change my mind about those people or these people, or God changed me.
[00:16:26] And I think one of the most effective ways to be challenged in how we think and the perspectives that we hold is to gain a global perspective of what God is doing around the world.
[00:16:38] What happens when we open our perspective beyond the walls of our church and the borders of our own country is that we become aware of and we begin to pray for and we become concerned about the plight of those.
[00:16:53] And here's what will happen. Just three things to consider today when this takes place in our community is number one, we remember that God loves the whole world and not just my corner of it.
[00:17:03] There's a much quoted scripture in John chapter three where John says, Jesus said, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
[00:17:14] And there's no carve out for a specific country or people group.
[00:17:18] The very coming of Jesus was so that salvation and a pathway to rightness with God was now no longer tied to a specific group of people, but it was available to the whole world. So there's no American cutout in John 3:16.
[00:17:34] For God so loved America and everybody else. No, it's for all people. And so a global perspective reminds us that God loves America and Uganda and Canada.
[00:17:49] I know, I know.
[00:17:52] It's always. It's a terrible idea to dunk on Canadians because they're so nice.
[00:17:57] And it's like, how dare you, Evan. I know you feel it too.
[00:18:01] But it's the whole world and not just our corner of it. And I want the kind of faith that lasts longer than our current cultural boxes.
[00:18:10] As we walked around ancient sites in Turkey that were once major Roman cities and are now in ruins, it was a reminder that even the greatest nations and the strongest empires one day will fall.
[00:18:23] And centuries from now, generations from now, if people are to read the story of Westside Church, I hope what they will find is a kind of faith and practice in the way of Jesus that will still resonate 500, 600, 700 years from now if America is a footnote in the story of world history, that people might recognize the kind of faith that we practice, that it was not so tied to our current moment and current place and current culture and current language, that it bears no resemblance to the historic Christianity that has been practiced from the beginning. I hope that people will look back as if they would read transcripts from these times and these services say, I recognize that kind of worship. I recognize that kind of teaching. I recognize that kind of discipleship, because our discipleship in the way of Jesus is bigger than our current moment or the great nation that we are currently a part of, because all things will fall. And so we better anchor ourselves to the thing that will never fail, which is Jesus, our anchor. Amen.
[00:19:23] So this is a reminder as we move out of our boxes that God loves the whole world. It also helps us obey Jesus Great commission to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything. I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. There is an urgency to what Jesus commanded his disciples in the great commission that we feel today.
[00:19:53] One of our evenings in Turkey, our team split up into twos and we went to different houses of believers in the city we were in, in Turkey and just meeting and having wonderful Turkish food. Turkish food is amazing, by the way. This is a sales pitch to go on the trip, but sitting in homes and receiving the hospitality of these Turkish families. And Jacob and Brent were both in a home of a couple. And she shared her story how over a decade ago, they're devout Muslims, and one day her husband brought home one of those big old roof antennas for the tv.
[00:20:31] And so he mounted the TV antenna and he's adjusting it. You've done that right, where you're adjusting it. Are you getting a clear signal now? He's doing that. And finally they get it set up and then he goes off to work.
[00:20:45] And his wife is sitting there watching the TV and flipping through the channels that they can receive over the air. And she stumbles upon a broadcast from somewhere. And it's on a loop. One movie, one film. And that film is the Jesus film.
[00:21:00] If you know about the Jesus film, it is. I think it's shot in the 1970s. Some of you might know, it's 70s or 80s, it's very old school. And it just walks through one of the gospels, start to finish, and ends with the resurrection of Jesus. Now, if you're expecting like chosen level production, this is not that, okay?
[00:21:20] But this is what she can see on the tv.
[00:21:24] And she's so compelled by this story. She watches it every day for four months as her husband goes off to work.
[00:21:30] She turns on the Jesus film and she sits there and she weeps, watching the gospel over and over and over until she, with no outside help except for this film, nobody talking to her, no preacher, no pastor, she gives her heart to Jesus.
[00:21:50] And she's secret about it, right? Cause her husband doesn't want her to convert.
[00:21:54] There's no other Christians that they know. There's no community.
[00:21:57] She converts. And she holds this like a secret to herself until finally she has the courage to tell her husband. Eventually. He's very hesitant at first, but eventually he also watches this Jesus film and they come to Christ together. And they exist in this city and they know no other Christians.
[00:22:17] And I think about my experience and when I wake up and I have to decide, like, do I wanna go to church today? Do I wanna serve Jesus today? Do I wanna pray today? I think, well, I've got thousands of friends that also are rooting for me and encouraging me and doing this together. Could you imagine not knowing a single other Christian your whole life?
[00:22:39] And yet this was their story. And since then, they got connected to one other believer and two other believers. And now there's about 40 of them.
[00:22:48] Jesus together. Having a global perspective reminds us that outside this experience that we all share. God is at work in places where the gospel has not spread nearly as far or wide as it has for us today.
[00:23:03] And number three, a global perspective will challenge us out of our apathy.
[00:23:08] One final story.
[00:23:10] We walked around the ruins of the city of Laodicea.
[00:23:14] And this is one of the cities in the book of Revelation. We're going to read the letter through John that Jesus spoke to this city in Laodicea.
[00:23:24] Obviously it's in ruins. And we walked around it for several hours.
[00:23:28] And the story of Laodicea in the time of the early New Testament, it was very, very prosperous. They had this unique dark black wool that they sold as well as this eye salve that was noted for its healing properties. And so all the empire people would purchase this isal from Laodicea. And so because of that, they were very wealthy. And even at one point when Rome was in financial trouble, they came to Laodicea to borrow gold from Laodicea. It was that prosperous of a city.
[00:24:01] And in Laodicea it is between these two other biblical cities. One, Hierapolis, which is up on this hill, and it has these hot springs. And so we got to actually barefoot walk up into these hot springs in Hierapolis. And. And then on the other side, there's another city called Colossae, which Paul wrote to the Colossian church there. And it had fresh water from a spring. But in the middle is Laodicea, no spring of its own. And so it would have to be. The water would have to be brought in via these Roman aqueducts, many of which are still there in the ruins. We got to see them.
[00:24:33] But the water that would come into Laodicea was stale and lukewarm because of the distance that it had traveled to get there.
[00:24:40] And so it's to this very wealthy, prosperous city of cloth makers and eye salve makers with stale water that Jesus speaks to in the book of Revelation. I want to read this. Revelation 3:14.
[00:24:53] To Laodicea.
[00:24:55] Write to Laodicea to the angel or messenger of the church. God's yes, the faithful and accurate witness. The first of God's creation says, I know you inside and out, and I find little to my liking. You're not cold, you're not hot.
[00:25:11] Far better to be either cold or hot. You're stale, you're stagnant. You make me want to vomit. Which is not a good way to start a sermon. Here, Paul or John, Jesus, you brag, I'm rich, I've got it made. I need nothing from anyone oblivious that in fact You're a pitiful, blind beggar. Threadbare and homeless. So here's what I want you to do.
[00:25:32] Buy your gold from me. Gold that's been through the refiner's fire. Then you'll be rich. Buy your clothes from me. Clothes designed in heaven. You've gone around half naked long enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me. So you can see. You can really see.
[00:25:46] The people I love, I call to account. I prod and correct and guide so that they'll live at their best. So up on your feet, then. About face. Run after God.
[00:25:56] Look at me.
[00:25:58] I stand at the door and I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I'll come right in and sit down to supper with you. Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the sight of my father. That's my gift to the conquerors. Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the wind. Words. The spirit blowing through the churches.
[00:26:19] As I walked around the ruins of Laodicea, they have marked out where the original ancient church stood. And at the entrance to this church, they've reconstructed the original doorway with the original stones that would have been above that doorway.
[00:26:35] And so we stood under that doorway, and Pastor Brent was there, and he said, you know, this is the doorway to the church. So when the letter from John the Apostle in the Book of Revelation, now, that letter that was written to the Laodicean church would have been read in this space. And when he gets to the part where he says, I stand at the door and knock, it would have been this that they were looking at.
[00:26:57] And so I was like, whoa, that's cool. So I stood up against the door and I thought about taking a selfie. And that felt weird. So I just put my hand on the door frame and I took this picture of my hand on the door frame of the Laodicean church. And I thought, two things. Number one, I gotta moisturize. I know. I'm sorry.
[00:27:15] You're like, was there a very, very elderly man with you? No, that's me.
[00:27:20] My hand.
[00:27:24] I put my hand on this door.
[00:27:26] And just to myself, quietly, I just quoted from Revelation, chapter three. And I thought of you.
[00:27:32] I said, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone would hear my voice and open the door, I'll come in and dine with you.
[00:27:40] And you know, this church that this letter was written to so long ago stands in ruins. But we don't here.
[00:27:49] And we're awake and we're alive. And I would love to take all of the hard things that Jesus said to the Laodicean church and apply that to other churches, other churches that aren't as great as us.
[00:28:04] But I'll tell you what, standing in that space and standing here with you today, I know that we have to receive what Jesus would say to us. And I think oftentimes it can sound a lot like what Jesus said to them is that we've become so self sufficient in our own ability to provide what we need and do all this stuff that we're rich and we've got it made. I need nothing from anyone says us.
[00:28:27] And Jesus would speak to us today as he spoke to them then and say, listen, lukewarm and stale faith, self sufficiency, thinking you have it all together will remove you from that place where you can receive from me. And so today we are joining with that church so many millennia ago and we are saying, yes, Lord, to your words.
[00:28:54] Let your spirit blow through your church today.
[00:28:59] I don't want to be a church that has all this stuff and does all the cool programs and makes their services look just right and feel comfortable and miss the work of Jesus.
[00:29:12] And so I want to invite us today that wherever we are self consumed, that we would turn our eyes outward, wherever we think we've got it all figured out in our self sufficiency and our resources, that we would realize that without Jesus, we're blind, broke and naked.
[00:29:30] And in those places where we are stale and lukewarm, we would let the Spirit blow again through his church. The same spirit that today is at work all around the world.
[00:29:39] Believers in Spain, believers in Japan, believers in Turkey, believers all across the African continent, South America, North America, all over. God is at work.
[00:29:51] And so we say yes to his move. Amen.
