Hello Ginghamsburg!

I’m Dave Hood, the campus pastor at Fort McKinley, our downtown branch on the corner of Salem and Seibenthaler.  Will you pray with me as we begin?  God, it is so good to be in Your house today.  You’ve called us to this road less traveled, so teach us how to walk it.  Give us the courage; give us the strength; give us the focus.  God, we pray today specifically for Pastor Mike as he’s teaching and preaching in Korea, as he’s using the gifts, the skills and lessons he’s learned right here at Ginghamsburg to change the world.  We thank you for him and his vision, and we pray that You’ll be with him this week.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

We’re starting this new series called The Road Less Traveled, as we head toward Easter and begin the journey toward the empty tomb.  I think it’s interesting because we’re all on a journey.  We’re all on a path to somewhere, but the question is, “Which path are we on?”  There are all kinds of paths to choose from, aren’t there?  You can choose from any one of a hundred different kinds of paths.  There’s the road to riches – some of us are on that path, where we think if we just get more stuff, just collect more things, get more for ourselves – we have this mindset that whoever has the most stuff at the end, wins.  That’s one path.  There’s the pathway to enlightenment.  If we can think more clearly, if I could  educate myself better, if I could learn to reason better, then I could figure out this path on my own.  Some of us are looking for Easy Street.  It’s really defined by the path of least resistance.  What can I do that’s most convenient, most comfortable, and the least taxing on my time and resources?  Some of you are on the Led Zeppelin path – The Stairway to Heaven.  It’s like tell me the bare minimum that I have to do to get to heaven?  If you’re not a Led Zeppelin fan, maybe you’re an AC/DC fan, and you’re on a different highway.  You’re just determined to live that way.  I’m going to ask, “What road are you on?”

What is the path that you’re on?  This season of Lent is a time for us to reflect, to reprioritize, and ask those hard questions.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus wanted to make it clear to us which path he expects us to take.  If you’ve got your Bibles, open up to Matthew 7:13.  Jesus says, “Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the road that leads to destruction.  And many enter through it.  But small is the gate, and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.”  That narrow path Jesus is talking about is that road less traveled.  It’s the road that only a few find according to Jesus, and those that do are these counter-cultural Jesus followers.  They’re the folks that, when everybody else is going one way, they’re going the other.  When society and life tells you to head in one direction, they’re going to head in the other direction because they’re following Jesus.  These are the folks that find that path.

One of the activities my wife and I really enjoy doing together is trail walking.  I don’t mean mountain climbing – we’re not quite there yet.  Give me a nice flat path through the woods – maybe a creek or two, and we’re good for that.  There’s a great path in Sugarcreek Metro Park.  It’s a 3.7 mile circular trail.  We love walking it; it’s beautiful – trees and creeks, and all kinds of incredible nature stuff.  Last year, we walked it a lot, because I was training to run a 5K run.  I thought it was about the same distance as a 5K run, and it would be really good training for me to consistently work this path. 

So, every time my wife and I would step on this trail, we’d walk it a little faster, and with a little more gusto.  I remember one particular time, we were on this path, maybe half a mile in and here came this young lady running – I don’t mean jogging – I mean in a flat-out run towards us.  We were getting out of the way so she could pass, and she blows by us so fast, all we see is Nike shoes and a pony tail.  I remember thinking to myself, “Man, she must be late for something.”  No sane person would run that fast for any reason.  But, when she ran by me, it engaged my competitive spirit. So, I said, “All right, honey, it’s time to pick up the pace a little.”  So, we started walking a little faster down this road, and we got about a half hour into this trail, and here she comes again!  I couldn’t believe it.  I’m thinking, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”  Not only has she lapped me once, she’s lapped me twice now!  I was thinking, “That’s it.  It’s on now.”  Now, I’m dragging my wife behind me, “Come on, honey, keep up.”  We’re going to work our way down this path.  We make our way almost toward the end, and we’ve got about a half mile left to go towards the end, and I’m feeling really good about myself. I’d been working it really hard and feeling really good about it, and then this lady passes me a third time.  Three times!  This time I was just mad.  I took my water bottle, threw it on the ground and said, “This is ridiculous.”  What I knew then, was that I wasn’t on the narrow path I thought I was on.

What she was showing me was that being counter-cultural requires a whole other level of commitment. Up to that point, I hadn’t been willing to give that level of commitment.  Every day, we’ve got to choose a path, don’t we?  We choose what path we’re going to walk every day, and sometimes we do it consciously.  We get up and say, “All right, here’s what I’m going to do today.  Here’s how I’m going to live my life.”  Sometimes, we do it out of habit.  This is how I lived my life yesterday, so I guess I’ll do that again today.  We do it without thinking, but we choose a path every day.  Sometimes, we choose the way of the crowd.  Sometimes, we choose the road less traveled.  In Exodus 23, it tells us, “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.”  Isn’t that where we get ourselves in trouble – following the crowd into doing wrong?  Sometimes, we don’t even know what road we’re on.  I thought I was on the narrow road until this lady just blazes by me. 

There are some tests you can do – kind of a self-check.  What road are you on?  There are some signs along the road that will help us determine the road we are on.  Is your road filled with shortcuts?  Is the road you’re on filled with quick answers and excuses?  If yes, it’s probably not the narrow road then, is it?  Is the road you’re walking on allowing you to avoid the hard stuff of life?  We try to navigate around it, rather than face it, don't we?  Is the road you’re on a very popular one?  Are there a bunch of people on it with you?  These are all questions we’ve got to wrestle with when we ask ourselves, “What road are we on?” 

The narrow road also has some signs.  Think about what your life looks like.  Are you traveling a road that requires disciplined living?  Are you traveling a road that requires us to be in it for the long haul, rather than getting on and off whenever it’s convenient for us?  Those are some signs you might be on that narrow road.  Does the road you’re traveling on require you to accept the challenges that are coming your way, or can you navigate around them?  Is there a commitment involved, to stay in it to win it? A commitment that many people around you have looked at and said, “I’m not so sure I’m up for that.”  These are some signs – some tests – we can put ourselves through to see if we’re traveling on this narrow road.  There is a danger: the danger of starting down one road but taking a detour, or switching lanes for convenience or comfort. Or, you find an exit that allows you to go your way, rather that God’s way.   I won’t ask you to raise your hand, but how many of us have already given up on our New Year’s resolutions?  Or, how many of us were here on Ash Wednesday and said, “I’m going to give up something for Lent?”  And now it’s inconvenient.

So, the road less traveled is a challenging one, no doubt.  There will be some great days as we travel down this road less traveled, and that’s good – enjoy those.  But, there will also be challenges that come, and when they do, how do we handle them?  Do we stay on the road, or do we get off?  I’m really thankful the Bible tells us that God’s mercies are new every morning.  A new day with all new chances.  Every day, I get to wake up and say, “All right God, today I’m walking with you.  Today, I’m going to do this, and you’re going to help me.”  We’ve all heard Pastor Mike over the years say that following Jesus is not a one-time thing.  It’s not something you do on Sundays, but it’s a life commitment.  It is a lifestyle of discipleship. 

I picked up Mike’s new book this week and was reading through it.  I was amazed as I was reading it, because there’s a challenge in there to the church, to each one of us, about walking the road less traveled.  Listen to what he writes:  “The church has compromised Jesus’ call to follow him in the way of sacrificial discipleship. We’ve called people to membership in an organization [wide road], but we’ve failed to mention discipleship with a cross [narrow road].  The church has asked people to make a decision for Christ, instead of make a commitment to follow in the lifestyle and mission of discipleship. We can even start following Jesus, but when it gets a little rough and rocky, sometimes we exit that road and settle for religion instead, or rules that come without power, for our lives.”  Which path are you on today?

The call to journey down this road less traveled is really a call to be counter-cultural, to go against the flow, to dare to be different.  I often think that if I’m following Jesus down the narrow road, then my friends and neighbors who aren’t think I’m a little weird.  Are you okay with being weird for Jesus?  I think that’s the call…a counter-cultural follower of Jesus will stand out in a crowd.  People will notice – there will be something different about you. I want to introduce you to a few folks from Fort McKinley – counter-cultural people who have dared to be different.  There’s a couple I know, Hugh and Marilyn, that  have been members of Fort McKinley Church for 63 years.  Isn’t that amazing?  In the year and a half that Ginghamsburg and I have been at Fort McKinley, they haven’t heard a single song they like.  Things change. I asked Hugh one day when we were talking about all the changes at Fort McKinley, I said, “Hugh, why do you put up with all of this?”  You know what he said?  He said, “Dave, it’s not about me.”  That’s counter-cultural.  That’s a narrow road kind of thinking. 

There’s a guy at Fort McKinley named Dan, and he takes his Transformation Journal to work with him every day.  When he gets to work, he invites the guys he works with to sit down with him for the first half hour and do the Transformation Journal together.  Now, most of the guys tell him, “No.  We’re too busy.  Just let us drink our coffee.”  Last week, Dan came up to me and said, “Hey, Dave, I got two.”  Two!  Two guys have started doing the Transformation Journal with Dan.  That’s what it looks like to not worry about what everyone else is thinking.  I’m going to follow Jesus wherever God has placed me, even at work.  There’s a lady a Fort McKinley; her name is Penny.  Penny started a class.  Listen to this – she has 27-6^th, 7^th and 8^th grade boys.  Are you living the nightmare with her yet?  They are taking a 10-week long class on etiquette.  Is that counter-cultural, or what!?  They are learning how to coordinate their clothes, what colors go together, how to dress, how to eat.  I got in trouble the other day at (TGIF) Fridays, because I was eating my ribs the wrong way.  Ben said, “Dad, you’re not allowed to lean over your plate.”  They’re learning how to handshake and how to look people in the eye.  My son has been practicing his handshake.  Penny said this is a dying art – manners and etiquette – but I’m not going to let it die on my watch.  And 27- 6^th, 7^th and 8^th grade boys are with her every Tuesday night.  That’s counter-cultural. 

I have three guys at Fort McKinley on our “Blacktop Brigade.”  They are out in our parking lot every weekend.  It doesn’t matter if it’s raining, snowing, icy or freezing cold, these guys are out in the parking lot every weekend. They make sure our tight little parking lot is able to fit the hundreds of people who are come to Fort McKinley.  It could be pouring down rain, and these guys will come in for worship, soaked to the bone. They will sit in the front row of our last service, soaking wet, with a big counter-cultural Jesus smile on their face.  They’ve been walking that path.  For these folks, political correctness, and what everybody else is doing and saying, is so much less important than following Jesus. 

So, I want to ask you to take just a minute.  All of our Roads Less Traveled are going to look a little different.  What does it look like for you to be on that narrow road?  What does it look like for you to take that next step in following Jesus?  It may be something that totally scares you, or totally blows your mind.  But, I’m sure it’s filled with life.  If you were here a couple of weeks ago, you probably remember Rusty, who is our Fort McKinley music director.  He was here a couple of weeks ago and played some music.  I asked him to put together a little story about his life and what he and his wife are about. Because, in my opinion, Rusty, and his wife Renee, are two of Fort McKinley’s counter-cultural superheroes.  Check out their story.

[Video]

After college, we got jobs, and we were doing the normal thing, and we decided together that we didn’t want to live the normal American Dream.  That road less traveled led us to Atlanta, where we worked with an organization called Mission Year.  Mission Year was a year-long service, learning experience in inner city Atlanta.  Coming out of Mission Year, we were challenged by Dr. King’s mandate to pursue beloved community, and we wanted to continue to pursue that kind of community, even to the point where it hurt.  We really wanted to be connected with a church that was connected to the community, and we wanted to be involved in that community.  One of the other things we wanted to pursue in the place that we settled down was justice.  There are a lot of systems that are painful and cause pain to people, and we really wanted to be a part of reconciling some of that.  So, we started looking for a church and we found Fort McKinley, and at first we thought, “Wait – is this possible?”  A neighborhood that’s diverse, a church that’s really invested in the neighborhood and lots of properties for sale that we could potentially live in.  We almost had to step back and think, “No, there’s got to be a catch here.”  There are a lot of people moving out of Fort McKinley, and we decided to move in.  We’re in – the boxes have literally been everywhere.  We bought the house on the 16^th of December, so we’ve been working on it.  This is our home.  We haven’t met a whole lot of neighbors, but we’ve met a couple. We’ve met A.J. and Sharita.  Our authentic community thing really boils down to loving each other.  That’s as counter-cultural as it gets.  Love your enemies, pray for the people who want to kill you.  Find your life by losing it.  That’s counter-cultural. 

[Dave] It’s amazing.  When 30% of the homes in my neighborhood are empty, abandoned or foreclosed, when everyone else in the neighborhood is trying to move out, we got these counter-cultural weirdos trying to move back in.  This is what it looks like to walk that narrow path.  Proverbs 14:12 says there’s a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.  A lot of us find ourselves on a good path – I’m walking through the trail feeling pretty good about myself – but if it’s not God path, we’ve missed that narrow road.  I can hear what some of you are thinking – that narrow road, it sounds exciting for you, Dave.  Good luck with that!  Because, the wide road is comfortable, it’s convenient, it’s what I expect, and it’s familiar.  Why would I want to give that up?  Why would I do that?  What’s the benefit?  I’m here to tell you that the road less traveled is a hard one.  It’s a challenging one.  Not that there won’t be great moments, but it’s a challenging road.  Here’s why I think we ought to walk it.  Jesus said it’s the only path that leads to life.  Life!  And, when Jesus talks about life, he doesn’t just mean “getting by.”  He doesn’t just mean making it and surviving.  When Jesus talks about life, he talks about abundant life … a life that overflows out of us.  There’s this narrow path that leads us to an abundant life … a life where you are living your life dreams, not just your dreams, but God’s dreams for you. Where you are engaging all of your gifts and all of your resources, in a way that is changing the world.  Where you find yourself serving in your sweet spot, and you’re thinking every day is hard, but worth it.  That’s what an abundant life looks like, and it’s walking that narrow road that Jesus says leads to that kind of life. 

Have you been watching the Olympics at all?  I can’t take my eyes off the Olympics.  I love watching it, and I can’t turn it off.  Our TV is constantly on that channel.  My favorite sport in the Olympics is the snowboard cross.  It’s the craziest kind of sport.  Six guys get on a hill together, all on snowboards, and head down the same hill, at the same time. It sounds nuts to me.  They’re going around these curves, and navigating these jumps together, and they’re bumping and jostling for position.  There’s a guy named Seth Westcott.  Seth Westcott is the 2006 Olympic gold medal winner in this sport.  He was training – he was going to try to do repeat –  back-to-back gold medals.  As he was training this past December, he had a terrible crash.  He was injured really badly, and went to the hospital. The doctor said, “You’ve really only got two choices:  retirement or rehab, and we’d suggest retirement.”  They said, “Look, you already have a gold medal, you have nothing left to prove, so just retire. The road to rehab is going to be a tough one.  It’s going to be painful, and it’s going to require incredible commitment.  We just don’t know if you should do that.” 

Well, for Seth, there was only one option.  The easy road wasn’t one of them.  He said, “I’m going to do what it takes.  I’m going to push through.”  On Monday, I watched the final race.  He just barely made the finals.  Seth's times had been a little slow, so he was on the outside lane, the worst lane to be in.  After the race started, he was in dead last.  There were about 20 yards between him and next person.  Do you know what he did?  He just kept working it.  He just kept pushing it.  He knew the goal before him, so he kept working his way down this hill. About a third of the way down the hill, he finally passed the next-to-last guy.  He kept working it, and moved up in the crowd. By this time, I was saying, “Come on Seth!”  All of the snowboarders got to the bottom of the hill, and just as they’re getting ready to cross the finish line – literally within inches – Seth passed the second-place guy, and won the gold medal.  I freaked out!  I thought, “Oh my gosh – it was amazing.” 

Listen to what the Bible says in Philippians 4:13.  “I press on toward the goal, to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”  What is that prize?  According to Jesus, it’s abundant life.  The road less traveled is about our character, and the quality of that abundant life, so much more than about our comfort and convenience.  That abundant life happens, not just in heaven someday, but right here, right now, living in God’s shadow.  Now every day, we have to make this choice.  What road are we going to be on?  Next week, Pastor Brian is going to be here, and he’s going to help us navigate our way through some of the choices we  have to make every day in order to stay on the road less traveled. But, I want to just give you the first step.  Every day, I have to choose to follow Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  That’s the way I want to go; that’s the direction I want to find myself in.  In Luke 9, Jesus is finishing his ministry here on earth.  This is what it says, “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”  Another version of the Bible says, “He set his face towards Jerusalem.”  He had this laser focus on Jerusalem.  Anybody know what was waiting for him in Jerusalem?  The cross – that’s right.  Jesus set his focus on the cross.  That road less traveled.  I want you to know that it wasn’t a fluke he was able to do that.  I know many of us are thinking, “Would I be able to do that?” 

For Jesus, it was the culmination of a lifestyle of the road less traveled.  It was a lifelong commitment to it. So, when everyone else was ignoring the poor, the lame, and the marginalized, what road was Jesus on?  When the Pharisees and the religious leaders were telling everyone to follow the rules and “do the religion thing,” Jesus counter-culturally said, “No – there is this relationship with God that will rock your world!”  When they brought the woman caught in the act of adultery – do you remember that story – Jesus stood up and said, “I dare anyone of you that thinks he’s never sinned before, throw that first stone.”  Even as Jesus is standing there before Pilate, right at the end of his life.  Pilate is saying, “Just compromise a little bit and all of this will go away.  Just tell them you’re not who they think you are.” Jesus had his face set, didn’t he?  He knew the path that he was on, and it was a lifestyle of walking that road less traveled, that gave him the courage and the strength to continue to walk it..  The call of a counter-cultural Jesus follower is not to go the way of the crowds, but to go the way of the cross, and to follow Jesus there.  Here’s the good news – Jesus has already blazed that trail.  Jesus has already made that way, so all we have to do is follow him. 

I want you to know that God has wired you to live this kind of abundant life, to walk the road less traveled.  God has wired you for an incredible, adventure-filled, gold medal kind of life – a life that some of us think, “That’s too much for me.”  God has wired you for that.  I don’t know about you, but I want to be that girl who ran by me on that trail.  I want somebody to say, “Hey, Dave, where’s the fire?”  It’s right here, because God put it here.  I want to be Seth Westcott, when the easy road is not an option.  I want to be Hugh and Marilyn, who after 63 years, say, “It’s not about me.”  I want to be Dan, who doesn’t care what his co-workers think.  At the end of the day, I really want to be like Jesus.  Does anybody besides me want to be like Jesus? Jesus, who lives a lifestyle of walking the road less traveled, even if it means all the way to the cross.   

Here’s some more good news: Psalm 37:5 says, “If you commit your way to the Lord, and trust in him, then he will do this.”  Commit your way to the Lord – “OK God, I’m going to follow you, wherever you go, wherever you’re leading me.  I’m going to trust you with my way.”  Do you see what it says?  Not you will do it, but he will do it.  I want you to know that you’re stronger than you think you are.  Not by yourself.  We need each other.  We need community; we need to be following Jesus.  But, you’re stronger than you think you are.  God has this incredible dream of a life for you – a life that’s going to change the world and make a difference.  It’s going to radically change neighborhoods.  It’s going to get inside your family and blow their minds.  God has designed an abundant life for you to live.  We are not designed to take the easy way out.  In order for us to do this – to walk this road – we’re going to have to pray for each other, aren’t we?  Here’s what we’re going to do.  I’m going to pray for you, and ask you to pray for me. And, let’s pray for those around us. We’re going to pray for each other, because on the road less traveled, there will be challenges.  But, as we follow Jesus, it leads to life.  Will you pray with me?

God, what a gift in is to stand here in Your house, to claim Your promises, to know that the road You’ve called us to walk, You’ve already walked it.  God, all we have to do is follow You.  God, You have built into each one of us abundance and hope and grace beyond what we can even imagine.  God, I just pray that You will give us the courage to walk the road that leads to that abundance, even though sometimes it may be hard.  I pray for everyone here, and the challenges that they’re going to face over the next six weeks as we dig deep into what it means to follow You God, I pray that You will give us courage and that laser-focus like You had.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I want to finish with this sentence – you’ve heard it before. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.  Amen.