Come On The Journey

Harbor Church West Oahu is launching, and it’s party time! We have so much to celebrate! Celebrating is a great, God-honoring way to recognize and tell about God’s goodness in our lives. Paul saw some reasons to celebrate when he wrote to the church in Colossae in Colossians 1. Here are some things he celebrated that Harbor West is also celebrating as we launch.

GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES ON YOUR JOURNEY
Mark 1:2 says, “As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight!” Mark points people back to the Old Testament, to something written by a guy named Isaiah. This is what Isaiah wrote down, long before Jesus actually came. That the Lord, the Messiah King would come, and there would be a preacher who preached in the wilderness who prepared all the people for this Messiah King. Isaiah wrote that because that’s what God promised to do. That’s what we just spent all of Advent looking at, that God keeps His promises. You’re going to hear that a lot if you stick around our church. Because we need to keep reminding ourselves that it’s true. We need to keep seeing in the Bible that it’s true.

One person tried to count all of the promises that God makes in the Bible and he got over 3,000. If you’ve put your faith in Jesus and are on this journey of following him with your life, that means that there are a lot of things that God’s promised for you. God will keep all of those promises. Every promise that we find in the Bible, God will keep it on your journey with him.

Like the promise in Isaiah that God gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Maybe you’re feeling weary and weak on your journey, and you need to be reminded and believe that God’s promised to give you strength.

Or the promise that even if the mountains are shaken and the hills removed, God’s unfailing love for you will not be shaken or moved. God’s promised to love you no matter what else is going on in your life, no matter what chaos and instability are happening.

Or in 2 Chronicles. Look at this one: “And [if] my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” Maybe you need reminded that God’s promised to hear you, forgive you, and bring healing into your life. God has these and many more promises for you on your journey with him.

DON’T MISS JESUS ON YOUR JOURNEY
God kept his promise in Isaiah here, and Mark 1 continues: “John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. John wore a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “One who is more powerful than I am is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” We know this guy as John the Baptist. And this guy was definitely on a journey; kind of a weird journey of following God, that led him out to the wilderness, outside of the city hanging out with the wild animals, dressing kind of strange and eating some bugs. Now, you’d think a lot of people might just be curious about this guy’s lifestyle and want to check it out. I used to live by a hoarder in town, and I’d walk out of my way to go by her house to try to peer in through all of the stuff to catch a glimpse of her. And it says that people from all over were going out to see John, to check out this crazy rumor of this guy who’d lost it. So, John knew how to draw a crowd. He was attractional. He got people interested and got them out of their house and got them to come hear him.

But he wasn’t just attractional. He wasn’t just in it to draw a crowd. His goal was to tell them the truth. These people heard that they needed to confess their sins. That they needed to be baptized. That they needed to believe in someone greater than the preacher, greater than John, one that was coming that was God himself. And they need to gather together around THAT person, not around John.

It is very easy to come to church each week and be a part of the religious system, but totally miss Jesus. Because, coming to church is a sacrifice. Going to community group is a sacrifice. Serving in church, Giving financially, helping someone in need, reading your Bible, spending time in prayer: all sacrifices. And sacrificing makes us feel really good. It makes us feel like we’re really good people. So a lot of people journey out, into the wilderness, to be a part of the crowd, but they totally miss Jesus in the process. You know how we know that they missed Jesus, even though John was preaching plainly about him? Look at what Jesus says to the same crowds of people in John 5: “John was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.” Many of the people only rejoiced for a while, and it’s because they were rejoicing in John’s light.

Jesus is calling us on a journey of rejoicing forever, rejoicing in HIS light. Don’t miss Jesus at our church. Please don’t think that our church is about a service every Sunday. Or about a meal. Or just a community of people who like to play board games. This is all about Jesus. This journey that Harbor West is on, of planting a church in Ewa, is all about who Jesus is and what he’s done. That’s what our church’s journey is about.

What’s your journey about? Your life? If it’s about money, or your career, or success, or even about another person, you may rejoice for a little while in the light of those things. But you can rejoice and be content and at peace FOREVER in Jesus. Don’t miss Jesus.

We’re going to continue journeying through this book. Join us on Sunday mornings at 10am to journey with Jesus through Mark.