The Highlands

The House

“Life in the Garage”                   1^st John 4:7-21                  5/4/08

Introduction: ILL: Dad’s ability to identify cars.  Have you ever known one of those guys who are into restoring cars? Most of us do. They scour the junkyards and the abandoned chicken houses looking for old wrecks. When you we see a dilapidated old rust bomb sitting out in a field with weeds growing through the rusty floorboards they see a classic. Though there is no paint remaining, they imagine that there is. Though the tires have long since rotted away, they see it in white side walls. Though the seats are nothing but rusty springs, they see them with perfectly stitched and piped upholstery. They giggle like little children on Christmas morning when they find such a wreck. As they haul them home on big trailers, they do so with big smiles on their faces. They smile even though they realize they’ve taken on a big project. They smile even though they know They will invest countless hours and no small amount of money to bring it back to life, but they’ll do it.

But when, at the last, we see their perfectly restored car driving down the road, we finally do understand. We finally see what they always saw. Everybody is delighted at the sight of a perfectly restored car. Everybody’s head turns, everybody smiles and says “That’s cool.” Wherever they park, they gather crowds.   The garage at mother’s home sits the first car my parents ever bought.  [Show slide: 1966 Dodge Coronet]

Transition: I think God is an awful lot the guy who’s into classic car restoration.  God sees each person, no matter how messed up, confused, or morally questionable, we may be as valuable, important, worth saving, and worth the time and investment it’ll take to restore you to the original design the Creator had when you rolled off the assembly line.  God knows what you were meant to be.  He hasn’t forgotten his original plans and he’s working even now at that work of restoration.  That’s life in the garage and God knows that simply takes time.

Read 1^st John 4:7-21

Body: God’s process of spiritual restoration in your life began long before you ever thought about God or had any interest in going to church.  When we come to faith in Christ and the presence of God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, comes to live within us God effective removes us from the old warehouse we were found in.  Despite the fact that our spiritual tires are rotting, the paints has peeled off, and damage to the body is extensive he brings into the garage, and what is the garage attached to?  The House, which is the Church.  Once we’ve come to faith in Christ it’s not over.  Too many people make a serious mistake in thinking that once they’ve come to faith in Christ and they’re a part of the house they’re done.  They’ve arrived.  Their spiritual trip is finished.    

[ILL: Now that I’ve come to faith I’m ready for life to get easy and for the troubles to go away.] 

If that’s you I’ve got good news and bad news.  The bad news is the work, the struggles, and troubles have just started.  You haven’t seen anything yet.  The good news: You’re not going to have to go through it alone.  It’s like restoring that car.  Once it’s back at The House that’s when the real work begins, right?  That’s when you run into problems and that’s when it gets expensive.  The good news is you’re working with the best person in the field of restoration.  You just do what He tells you to do, let Him do the work, and stay out of His way and things will be OK.

As God begins to work at rebuilding our lives one of the tools he uses is the bible.  I know many people think the bible is nothing more than an arcane old book full of myths and fables that you read to little children before bedtime or what Granny read sitting in her rocking chair with he shawl wrapped around her, or you decorate your coffee table with it, but listen to how God describe his primary restoration tool. “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires” (Heb. 4:12).

The writer says it’s alive and powerful.  How?  It’s infused with the power of the Holy Spirit and God uses his word to change us, grow us, mature us, and make us holy.  In fact, this was Jesus’ prayer the night before he died.  “Use the truth to make them holy. Your word is truth.” (Jn. 17:17 NIRV).  Through the power of the Holy Spirit God uses scripture in the process of spiritually restoring your life.  You may not think it’s doing anything, but it is.  You may not think its taking effect, but it may be doing more under the surface than you’d every thought possible.  Consequently, your entire life becomes a time of restoration. 

[ILL: car being restored, you drive it anyway]  We’re prone not to do things in the life of the church or as followers because we don’t know enough, aren’t smart enough, can’t this enough or that enough, but while God is working on you better let him take you out on the road every so often. 

How do you approach God’s Word?  Listen to what the writer of Psalm 119 says about God’s Word.  “I rejoice in your word like one who discovers a great treasure” (Ps 119:162).  In other words, he delights in the truth found in scripture just like the guy [Show slide: old 1969 Camaro] who found the old 1969 Camaro in a junkyard and that guy went crazy because you’d think he found buried treasure.  Well, guess what?  To him he did.  Is that how you approach the bible, like buried treasure?  I didn’t think so, but I don’t either.  Oftentimes the bible isn’t anything more than another chore or duty I’ve got to do.  You don’t have to read the bible you get to read the bible.

ILL: three sons grew up moved away, but wanted to do something great for their ageing mother: 1^st – “I built a big house for mom.” 2^nd – “I sent her a Mercedes with a driver.”  3^rd – “I’ve got you both beat.  I know mom enjoyed reading the bible, but can see anymore.  So I sent her a parrot that can recites the entire Bible.  It took elders in the church 12 years to teach him.  He’s one of a kind. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse, and the parrot recites it.” Afterwards momma sent thank you cards to her boy: To the 1^st: “The house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house." To the 2^nd: “I am too old to travel. I stay most of the time at home, so I rarely use the Mercedes and the driver is rude!”  To the 3^rd: “You have the good sense to know what your mother likes. The chicken was delicious.”

There’s going to come a day (one day) at the end of time, when everything is completed and Christ returns, and we who have been designed, built, used, forgotten about, found and saved and then restored will be revealed in all our glory. [Show slide: restored 1969 Camaro]  When that day comes everyone’s head will turn, they’ll all smile, we’ll get the thumbs up, and everyone will finally see what God saw in us all along.  Not two will be the same, but each and every one of us, who’re a part of the House of God and spent time in the garage, will be admired as the masterpiece of God.  “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Eph 2:10).  

However, John is more interested in where we are in the here and now rather than the hereafter.  All that’s going to come one day, but it’s the process of restoration that John wants us to be aware of.  It’s who we are and who other people are today that John is concerned about.   

Let me be honest with you.  If you’ve placed you’re life into the hands of God and accepted his forgiveness by receiving Christ then you’re going to experience life in the garage.  And that’s both good and bad.  It’s good because you’re going to be different when God is finished with you.  It’s bad because he’s going work you over.   God will use the circumstances in your life to weld, sand, hammer, grind, and polish you as he puts you back together again.  Oh, it may hurt and it may feel like you’re being beaten to death, but you aren’t.  “The sufferings we have now are nothing compared to the great glory that will be shown to us” (Rom 8:18 NCV).  The trouble today are nothing compared to what’s coming on that great day.

One thing that was in God’s original chassis design for our life, but is now probably the most flawed of all aspects and is in need for fixing is this: Love.  I know you were expecting something far grander, but that’s it.  When you hear that word you probably aren’t thinking what John was thinking.  You think Valentine’s Day, your spouse, cute little red hearts cut out by your kids, or some other mushy, sentimental, nauseating Meg Ryan movie idea.

That isn’t what John is thinking.  In John’s understanding Love is all about sacrifice.  Love isn’t ideas, philosophy, feelings, theories, or butterflies in the stomach.  No, in John’s understanding the love of God is all about sacrificial action.  Listen.  “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him” (1 Jn 4:9). 

Let me put it language of car restoration. [Show slide: abandoned car]   It’s like he’s saying, “Hey, you were the rust heap sitting out in the field.  In the eyes of everyone else you were a worthless of piece of junk, but God saw you from a distance and he just had to have you.  He knew you were a beauty when he first laid eyes on you.  As a result, God spared no expense to get you so he could fix you up and one day show you off to the world.”

Friend, out of a love that you’ll never be able to fully wrap your puny mind around the Creator of the Universe spared no expense in order to buy you out of the field and begin the restoration process.  “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 Jn 4:10).  In fact, he’s even willing to buy the field if necessary.  “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field” (Mt 13:34).

When everyone else saw the rotting floorboards, rust, and the ruined upholstery of your soul God saw an instant classic.  He found you introduced you to his Son (Jesus) who paid the price so that you could be hauled into God’s House and by experiencing life in the garage God is putting you back together again the way you were originally designed.

THEREFORE, (here’s what it means for this church) you ought to be loving others who are in the same situation as you once were and going everything in your power to get them out of the field, out of the abandon chicken houses, and in here so that they can experience life in the garage.  What motivates us to do this?  One word: Love

[Show Movie Clip - The Matrix: Revolutions]

Love is not an emotion, it is a connection.  Emotions come and go, but love based in a commitment of the will, endures sacrifice, suffering, difficult, but believes that all things will eventually come together for good.  It is not surprising that a creation would bear the stamp of its creator.  The program is responding to its programming.  God, our Creator, has indelibly marked us with His image.  John says, “We love each other because he loved us first” (1 Jn. 4:19).    When a true connection is made between people or between a person and God, preserving that connection becomes a priority of the utmost importance.

You see friends, churches that have this mindset and approach their mission and vision from that angle…they grow.  Here’s why – Loving churches grow and growing churches love.  Why?  Because they know they aren’t a better make or model than anyone else and at some point in time it was them sitting a dirty old chicken house falling apart.  A church like that is full of people who’re being restored to life. 

Churches that don’t love don’t grow.  Some churches have a tendency not to love because all they see is the rust, the problems, and all the work involved in restoring.  They’d rather buy cars that are already restored instead of find and fix up the ones that could be.  If a congregation has this attitude what they’re doing is placing themselves in whole different class and separating themselves from other sinners.  When we do this (and I think we’re all prone to) we forget that it’s only the grace of God that we’re not still sitting in the field.  We forget and consequently don’t show the love of God to others.

John says, “Whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love.” (1 Jn. 4:8).  Our ability to love others is the direct result of our realizing how much we’ve been loved by God and how far God has gone to reach out to us, how patient God has been with us, and how merciful and kind God has been to us.  “Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us” (1 Jn. 4:11-12).  If the church of Jesus Christ does love and accept others isn’t it plainly obvious that the love of God isn’t working there?  In fact, it should scare us.  Here’s why.  It just might mean that we aren’t really in the protective garage of the Master Mechanic and Body Restorationist.  It could mean you’re really in the field rusting away even now.  People who know God (and you know God by knowing Christ) will love God and others.  It’s that simple.  I didn’t say you had to like everyone, but the followers of Christ are called to love.  It doesn’t mean you have to hang out together, but it means you do want the best for that person and you mean them no hostility.

ILL: Charlie Brown helping Lucy with homework, I’ll be eternally grateful, never had anyone be eternally grateful to me before, subtract four from ten to get how many apples the farmer had.  That’s it!  I have to be eternally grateful for that?  I was robbed.  Whatever you think is fair, How about thanks, bro?  Linus: Was she appreciative.  At greatly reduced prices.

A person who is a true car enthusiast not only appreciates old cars, but they also appreciate the process of restoration.  From finding the abandoned old junker, to bringing it back, the countless hours of work, the long nights, the unforeseen snags and headaches, the setbacks, the amount of money it takes to is amazing to when you final take it out onto the open road.  Listen, when you see the Holy Spirit work in people’s lives makes all the sacrifice, difficulty, and problems worthwhile.  You don’t want to sacrifice your time, use your spiritual gifts, or get involved by sacrificing your financial resources then don’t get involved in spiritual restoration and offering people help, hope, and healing.  Then on Sunday morning you can go to that other car show across town.  You gotta love every aspect of life in the garage. 

However, you run to a few people ever so often who say they like fixing up old cars, but do they really?  “But if we say we love God and don't love each other, we are liars.  We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don't love the people we can see?  The commandment that God has given us is: "Love God and love each other” (1 Jn. 4:20-21 CEV)!   Isn’t this exactly what Jesus said?  What’s the greatest commandment?  Love God with all you have and love your neighbor like you love yourself.   Let me make it real simple.  If you love God then you’ll love and serve the people God puts in your path.  Love for God and service to the world go hand in hand. 

When a church falls in love with a vision of partnering alongside God in this work of restoration guess what happens?  The church grows.  Do you know why?  Right, because it loves!  The church not only loves the work it does and the ones they work with, but they love the One who called them to the task in the first place.  “But I have this against you: you have abandoned the love [you had] at first. Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first” (Rev 2:4-5a HCSB). 

So regardless of what kind of condition you’re in when you show up at the House of God and no matter how much time is spent in the garage you can be assured of one thing – you won’t be the same when you leave.  [Are you tracking with me?]  The day will come when the garage door goes up and you fire that momma up and you roll outta there.  Oh, the work is done.  There’s always going to be detailing and other work to do, but you’ll be God’s masterpiece and one thing God will have built back into the original chassis design of your life is your ability to love and serve other people.   

Conclusion: [Show slide: garage] If you could walk around in God’s garage what would you see?  You’d see the tools that he uses, the vehicles in various stages of repair, the parts needed to complete each vehicle, but you’d see that life in the garage is messy, it’s dirty, and it’s not for the faint of heart who want to keep their pants clean.

Where are you today?  Are you in the garage?  Are you being hammered on, banged and beat with mallet?  Are you being sanded and refined?  What area of your character is God trying to detail?  Here’s what I think.  I think if God the Father is going to go to the trouble of finding you rotting away in a field somewhere, go to the expense of paying the price (with the blood of his own Son) to get you out of there then it’s about time for you to accept the fact that even though you can explain why he’d do it OR what he ultimately wants from you, you need the restoration that God desperately wants to do in your life.

So what do you need to do?  Accepting God’s payment for your sin by accepting Christ.  Get in the garage, get out of God’s way and let him put your life back together again that way you’ll be able to better partner with him when in help to put other people back together.