Treasure: Episode 2 - Breathe

Have you ever made a really big commitment? Not talking about signing up for a three year cell phone plan. I'm talking about something bigger than that. I'm talking about pursuing treasure.

Something like getting married, or having a baby. Maybe like buying your own place, or taking on a massive new project at work. Maybe even bringing home a new dog.

At first you're excited, but at some point, inevitably, reality starts to sink in. I'll need to pay a mortgage on this house, and I need to mow the lawn, and I need to replace the furniture when it breaks.

My wife, she's going to expect me to love, honour, and cherish her for the rest of our lives. And I'm gonna have to walk this dog twice a day.

Some commitments are a big deal. They're seriously long-term, consuming. They take our energy, our time, our love.

They tear our whole life upside down. So it makes sense that these commitments come with mixed emotions. There's excitement and hope, but also hesitation. Maybe even fear.

Commitment to follow Jesus is just like that.

It's a big deal.

The biggest, actually.

There's one point in Jesus' ministry where he's becoming incredibly popular. He's healing people, he's turning bread and fish into an all-you-can eat buffet for thousands.

Masses of people are following Jesus around.

That's when Jesus stops and says this: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it."

If hearing that makes you stop dead in your tracks and count the cost, then you're hearing Jesus right. Because what he's talking about is intense.

When you decide to be Jesus' follower, you're pledging to follow in his footsteps, to become just like him, learning to think like Jesus, to care about people like Jesus. You're promising to stick close to him through thick and thin no matter what's going on in your life.

If Jesus were standing right in front of you, right now, and he said to you, "Are you up for this? Can you make that commitment to keep me at the center of your life, to serve, and to obey me, no matter what, anytime, anywhere, at any cost, to do anything?" Are you in?

If your initial thought is, I'm not so sure, if this commitment feels scary or even impossible, you're not alone. Most of us feel that way.

Because we know ourselves, don't we?

Jarrod needs to tell his assistant to look more professional at work.

She's such an attention-seeker, I mean, does she have to talk to every guy in the office?

Hey Ashley!

Hi ladies!

Later!

Bye!

You look nice.

Thank you.

Jarrod was hoping to get some of those layouts this morning. Any chance I could get it by 11?

Sure thing. way to be on top of it.

Thank you.

We know that we're human beings.

We're not always very strong. We aren't always very selfless. We mess up. We make mistakes.

These things Jesus asks us to do, to deny ourself, to take up our cross, to follow, man a lot of times they're beyond us. They're more than we can even manage.

So why bother then? Why would you bother making a promise to Jesus that seems impossible for you to keep?

On your own it is impossible for you to keep. But you'll never be on your own.

The truth is, there's someone else in this equation and that someone is the holy spirit.

The moment you say yes to following Jesus, something absolutely incredible happens. God's own spirit enters you. Moves in you and starts to live inside of you. The infinite God of the universe, alive, inside of you.

Now when this happens, you don't just disappear.

It's not like you become a puppet controlled by the holy spirit. You're still fully there. With all your nice traits, and your not so nice traits. Your dark side, what the bible would call your sinful nature. It's not as though it's immediately erased.

Which means that you're gonna miss the mark sometimes. Some days you will say yes to the things that you should say no to and you'll say no to the things you should say yes to. You will lose sight of what's important. You may even forget that God is there.

You'll say mean things, or totally wrong things.

You'll let people down. Some days you may act like a jerk.

But you have the holy spirit. And that changes everything.

Because when you sin, the spirit keeps on working in you. Not condemning you, leaving you hopeless. Instead the spirit gently convicts you that what you're doing is wrong.

So you acknowledge your sin, say you're sorry, and then the spirit scrubs your mistakes clean. Forgiven. Washed away. It's gone.

When you gonna sand these legs down?

I actually kinda like it.

Oh really?

Yeah.

Hey, nice, nice work on that table guys, I like that.

Thanks.

Listen man, I gotta go, I got a project to do.

Who is it this time?

Going skating with Kai.

You know I'm going to convert him, right?

How are you gonna do that?

With my awesome personality.

The world needs saving, my friend, and someone needs to do it.

Yeah, good luck with that.

Travis?

You, you alright, buddy?

Yeah, no I'm good. See you tomorrow?

Yeah.

Alright, next trick - tre flip.

Okay.

Hey Kai, you should become a Christian.

Eh, Christians are lame.

Bro - I'm a Christian.

Exactly.

Dude, last trick. Your call.

Hold up. If I win, would you come to church with me on Sunday?

Church? Is that all you need to do to become a Christian?

What do I get when I win? You come to the dark side or something?

Listen, if you win, I'll buy you some burgers.

Hmm. Burgers? Pretty fancy.

Alright. Board slide down the ledge.

Let's see it.

Box ollie for the win!

Hey, would you show me some respect?

I thought we were just having some fun.

Whatever, man. I'm out of here.

What's your problem?

Kai, don't you ever take anything seriously?

Alright.

There are those days when you're at the end of yourself, and you feel completely done with no idea how you're supposed to face what's ahead. But the spirit never leaves you. Not for a second.

Hey.

You look like crap.

Thanks.

You don't look so great yourself.

Yeah, it's bad.

Is there anything I can do?

I see you're taking that more seriously.

That's great.

Yeah.

Um...

Actually, I got some business I got to deal with, so I'll come by later, alright?

Jarrod.

Hey, when you come back, can you bring me some sushi?

Yeah. Sounds good.

He gives you what you need: more love, more joy, more peace, more patience, more kindness, more goodness, more faithfulness, more gentleness, more self-control, than you could ever have on your own.

God never gives up on you.

His spirit is fully commited to the process of making you more like Jesus.

Even if the same sin keeps tripping you up. Over and over.

You're forgiven over and over. You're washed clean over and over.

And you're given a fresh start over and over.

The commitment to serve and obey Jesus - it's challenging. It's impossible on our own.

But you're never on your own. Not for a minute. You have God's own spirit with you. Never rolling eyes at you. Never impatient. Everytime you fall, the spirit picks you up and then helps you to start over.

And he gives you the strength and the power and the wisdom you need to keep becoming the person that God created you to be.

Maybe you're thinking, wow, sounds amazing. And you'd be right. The holy spirit is amazing. But you know what else the spirit is? A treasure.

The spirit is a person. God himself. Not an impersonal force that we tap into.

It's as though most of us wish maybe the spirit was our personal assistant, or maybe that the spirit was a genie and we could call upon him and he'd be ready to grant us our three wishes.

Ashley!

Yeah?

I was wondering what you were doing after work tonight?

Um, TV, laundry, very exciting. You?

Not much.

Would you like to grab coffee with me? If your laundry can wait.

Um, yeah. That'd be really nice.

My best friend, Isla, works at the coffee shop down the street.

5:30?

Thanks.

The spirit is God.

Which means we're in for some surprises. The spirit is amazing and strong and ready to help us.

But the spirit isn't there just to arrange our lives exactly the way we want them. The spirit's not there to fix all of our faults and bad habits this second.

The spirit's not there to guarantee us the best parking spot

or to stop bad things from happening around us. Not even there to always give us the answers that we want when we want them.

Here's the other side of the coin. I can have the spirit's help and strength and comfort, but I also need to let the holy spirit be God. I have to let God be in charge. I have to quit trying so hard and admit that I don't have enough. And let him be what I need to live by the spirit and to let the spirit live through me.

You know there's a beautiful word picture for this.

In the old testament the Hebrew word for spirit is ru-ah. And in the new testament the Greek word for spirit is punumah. Both of these words mean wind, or breath, or life.

So here's a question. How long can you hold your breath?

No really, how long? A minute? Maybe a little more?

You're absolutely dependent on oxygen. You can survive without food or without water for days, but without oxygen you start to die within minutes. You need to breathe. You need to let out that toxic carbon dioxide that's building up and take in fresh air. Many times a minute, up to 20 000 times a day.

This commitment to Jesus that we've been talking about - you can do this. By faith in the spirit, one breath at a time. You breathe spiritually. When you get off track and you mess up, when you're full of angst and confusion and hurt - you exhale. You let out all that toxic stuff that's building up and you tell God.

And then you inhale the spirit. God's wind, his breath, his life.

You invite the spirit to fill you up and to make you clean. To take charge once again and give you the strength and the wisdom you need for right now.

You breathe. You depend on the spirit. You trust his strength to shine through your weakness.

And you do it over and over and over.