Full Sermon Transcript
WELCOME
Pastor Chris Paavola:
Good morning. My name’s Chris Paavola. I’m the senior pastor here at St. Mark and ma, this is an awesome week. I love weeks like this because we have a vision here at St. Mark to be a church the next generation calls their own. And this is one of those weeks where it’s just like, yeah, the vision is just right in front of us and made a reality. Just thank you guys so much for making this church a church that again can be a church that kids call their own. There’s so many volunteers that went into this from setup to show up to clean up. It takes an army, man. And I mean that it takes an army. This is just the volunteers. This is just the volunteers who served on VBS week. Take a look. I mean, it’s over a hundred people make this all happen. And can we thank them all for what they’ve done?:
(Applause)
It’s pretty exciting. All I did was wear a frog suit. That’s me the frog in the back there. That’s all I did. I just put a suit on and these are the people who really put the blood, sweat, and tears and the making it happen. And she will hate that I’m saying this, but that doesn’t just happen. It takes leadership. My wife is our youth and family director, Ashley Pavlis. She’s got a degree in youth ministry, but she is gifted at it. Can we thank her for her work? We’re thanking you. Yeah, there you are. There she is. Thank you, Ashley, and all the leaders who make it happen. It really does take a lot of infrastructure and work and systems and volunteer management. So, thank you. Now here’s what I want to do. I know the kids are in the room and it’s a little bit like, wow, I can’t even pay attention to what Chris is saying.
So, I’m going to keep my sermon really short today. But I do want to share a word about all the things we learned this week and all of the wow experiences that the kids had.
THE LESSON AFTER VBS
There’s one more lesson, but it’s a lesson you can’t learn at VBS. It’s a lesson you learn after VBS. And it’s just this idea of like, well, what do you do when VBS is over? What do you do when the decorations come down? And it’s just another normal week. You come off of this mountaintop experience and then you enter into the monotony experience of everyday life.
WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR FAITH WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL THE “WOW”?
Is our faith dependent on wow experiences? Is my relationship with God and how close I feel to him? Does it depend on these wow experiences? Do I have to wait for the next wow experience of like Christmas or Easter? Can I grow and have a relationship with God and have a wow experience in between these big mountaintop moments?
WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR FAITH WHEN YOU DODN’T FEEL THE “WOW”
And that’s what I want to talk a little bit about today so that your faith and your relationship with God doesn’t depend on these wow moments, these sugar rush moments. And it’s actually a lesson that our kids learned this week. And by the way, parents and adults, whether you were a part of VBS or not a part of VBS, this is something I think we can all learn. And also, it doesn’t matter your age, young or old. Don’t confuse childlike with childish. Jesus talked about having a childlike faith and there’s things that we can learn regardless of how old we are. And that’s really, I think, again, the lesson that comes after VBS.
PSALM 139
So, the kids this week learned about a man named David who existed who lived about 1500 years before Jesus. And David, looking back at his life, he saw mountains and valleys.
He saw highs and lows. He saw those moments where he’s like woo-hoo. And he saw those moments where he’s like, “Boo-hoo.” He had kind of an up and down life. He had moments where he had this thing called depression and he wrestled with depression. And he also had these moments of euphoria and ecstasy with God and joy. But in the middle of all of it, through it all, he noticed that there was something he learned about God and he wrote about it in these words that the kids read this week. And again, don’t confuse childish with childlike. These words are powerful words. And he was reflecting on his life and he wrote down these words and it’s actually a poem or a song. And these lyrics that are in your Bible today, it’s called Psalm 139. If you brought your Bible, you can turn right there in the middle.
Or if you don’t have your Bible with you, it’ll be on the screen here. But here’s what’s David. As he looks back on the highs and lows of his life, the joy and the sadness, the depression and the elation. Here’s what he noticed.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
Psalm 139
“Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” Even if I tried to find it, I can’t.
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
Psalm 139
And then he writes, “If I go up to the heavens,”, say it with me:
Response: “You are there.”
Pastor Chris Paavola: “If I make my bed in the depths”, say it:
Response: “You are there.”
Pastor Chris Paavola: The point being doesn’t matter how I feel. If I feel like I’m having this great experience, he’s there or if it’s a morning where I can’t even get out of bed because of the crippling feeling I have, he’s there. It doesn’t matter. And then he says, “It’s not just how I feel, it’s also where I am.”
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle in the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
Psalm 139
And then he writes about that in verse nine and 10. “If I rise in the wings of the dawn, if I settle in the far side of the sea, say it:
Response: “Even there”
Pastor Chris Paavola: “Even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast.” God is forever. God is for every emotion. It doesn’t matter wherever I am or however I feel God is there. He’s with me.
Praise God for that. Can you imagine? Can you imagine if being close to God depended on you feeling good? Your emotions and feelings are fickle. Can you imagine if closeness to God depended on you having goosebumps and hair raising like a tears in my eyes kind of experience? Can you imagine? There are brands of Christianity out there and there are religions in the world where you need to work yourself up into a fervor to have any kind of communion with God. That sounds exhausting.
- FLUTTERBYE
Running around chasing after feelings would make us all like this character. Dr. Flutterbye.
All week long, Dr. Flutterbye used this net and ran around chasing after a rare butterfly that she never found. And if we were chasing after emotions, if we were chasing after a feeling to be close with God, we’d be no different than Dr. Flutterbye. We’d be adrenaline junkies, thrill seekers, glory hounds chasing after the butterflies in our stomach, but praise God. God is with us even when it doesn’t feel like it. And that’s the lesson that comes after VBS. It’s the lesson you can’t learn at VBS. It has to come on just an everyday ordinary meh kind of week.
GOD IS WITH US. WOW GOD!
The God is with us. And you got to do the jazz hands too, guys. Okay? So, everybody, here we go. Ready? God is with us. You too up there. You too. Even when it feels like it and even when it doesn’t feel like it, God is with us. “Wow, God!”
When I’m at VBS or I’m at the DMV, when my friend calls me with good news or the doctor calls me with bad news, it doesn’t matter. God is no less with me. God is with us. “Wow, God.”
IMMANUEL
That’s a pretty good thing. Actually, did you know that in one of the prophecies about Jesus, they say his name will be Emmanuel. We’ll call him Emmanuel, kind of like a nickname, right? Immanuel. You know what Emmanuel means? It means God with us.
And for thousands of years, hundreds of years, people are waiting to look for God with us, the Messiah and they’re looking for the gold, the glory, the big army, the power, the wow. And then God with us shows up and we see God with us laid in a manger as a newborn. We see God with us laid on a cross as a criminal. We see God with us laid in a tomb as a sacrifice. We see God with us risen from the dead in a graveyard because that’s what God with us means. It’s okay if you aren’t okay. God is still with you. If you can’t get out of bed and it’s one of those days, I know what that’s like. Even there, God is with you. If it’s a day where you’re having a mountaintop experience and it’s laughter and it’s joy with your friends, God is with you, but he’s no less with you when you’re by yourself and you don’t want to shower or put on makeup.
It’s okay. God is with you. That’s the lesson of VBS that comes after VBS.
APPEAL
Now, I know I’m biased when I say this. It’s the second biased thing I’m saying today, but I love when you come back to church next week, you tell your soul that what it tends to forget, no matter what happens, I mean this. Look at this room, right? No matter what happens to any of us in the next week, it could be there’s someone in here who’s going to have the best week ever, someone in here who’s going to have the worst week ever, sorry. And no matter what happens in the next six days, when you walk back through those doors, you tell your soul that God is with me. No matter what, he’s still with me. He’s just as close. And if you come back through those doors and you are high fiving people, or if you come back through those doors and you are just low fiving it, doesn’t matter even when it feels like it and even when it doesn’t feel like it, God is with us.
“Wow God!”, let’s pray.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, I pray for everybody in this room. First of all, I pray for the kids and the VBS experience they had. God, I pray that you would continue to show them who you are, who they are in you and how wonderful and joyful a life with you is. Grow that seed of faith, fan into flame, that spark that’s in their hearts. I pray a prayer of blessing over all the volunteers. God, would you bless them in a very real way for being a blessing to us?
And then Father, I pray for any person in the room who feels like you’re not close. It’s been a long time since they’ve had a wow moment. I pray that right now you would show them that you are with them and that it makes them say, wow. Thank you, God so much for all you’ve done this week and thank you for your son, Jesus. He taught us to pray these words that we close together saying:
Our Father,
Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven,
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil,
For thine is the kingdom,
And the power, And the glory
Forever and ever, Amen.
