When I was about 5 years old, I got separated from my mom at the Children’s Museum. And it remains to this day one of my most vivid core memories from childhood.
We used to go there all the time. If you can believe it, in the late 80’s the Children’s Museum (and the zoo!) were totally free. It was a different time.
Anyway, my mom was pushing my baby sister in a stroller through the exhibit all about different cultures from around the world.
We were walking together, looking at stuff, and then I don’t know what happened. Maybe I doubled back to look at something without mom realizing it. Maybe she went around a corner thinking I was still with her. Regardless, at some point I looked up and realized that my mom was nowhere to be found.
I searched for a bit, ran back and forth between exhibits, but I could not find her anywhere.
Now, a grown-up in that situation would think rationally. “She’s obviously still in the building somewhere. She’s not leaving without me.”
But I was a 5-year-old. My mom was my world. My anchor. I had no idea who I was without her.
And so I started to panic. “This is it. I’ve lost my mom forever. I’m going to have to start raising myself now. It’s only a matter of time before I’m knife-fighting raccoons for food scraps from the dumpsters.”
Thankfully, just then I came across a museum staff member. I went up to her and said words that have been said countless times before by other scared children in exactly that situation: “I can’t find my mom. Help!”
The staff member told me it was going to be ok. She reached out her hand and took mine and said, “Come on. We’ll find mom together.” Holding hands, she led me to the elevator down to the main floor. Before we could even get to the front desk the elevator doors opened and standing right there was my mom.
I burst into tears and ran to give her a hug. Our separation was over, and we went back home together.
SEPARATION FROM GOD
Now, the reason I tell you this story is because today we’re talking about Separation from God: the fundamental brokenness behind our entire reality.
And although humanity’s separation from our Creator is far more consequential than a 10-minute loss of my mom at the Children’s Museum, there are some similarities.
The loss of my life’s anchor. The loss of my identity. The fear of the unknown. The need for someone else’s help when I couldn’t help myself. All of that is true for a lost child, but it’s also true for a lost humanity.
It’s so easy to think of separation from God in clinical, theological terms. “The penal substitutionary theory of the atonement is one interpretation of Pauline soteriology...”
When what I think we need is to reconnect our heart to the issue. To feel these realities the way we feel our core memories.
So, let’s pray, and then we’ll talk about what it really means to be separated from our God.
[PRAY]
THE SIX BROKEN PLACES
Before we dive into the specific topic for today, let me give a little bit of a setup to this series as a whole. It’s called “Hope Month,” and this is the seventh year in a row that we’ve done it.
Each Hope Month we talk about what we call at Grace “The Six Broken Places of the World.” Six distinct ways that the world is not what it was meant to be. Usually we spend a whole month looking at just one of the broken places. This year, we’re looking at all 6:
[explain each broken place + healing/hope]
The Six Broken Places:
Separation from God
Injustice
Isolation
Pain
Decay
Hatred
Now, all of those broken places are devastating to think about, but the granddaddy of them all is Separation from God, which we’re talking about today. This is the broken place that causes all the others. And essentially the entire storyline of the Bible is about it.
Humans were created to be God’s images in the world. His representatives. His children, living face to face with him without any separation.
God gave us, as his children, the responsibility of overseeing this very good Creation he had made. It’s our job, in other words, to spread God’s life and goodness and blessing throughout the world.
In short, we learn from God face to face, we obey his instructions, he blesses us in our obedience, and in turn we spread that blessing to the rest of creation. It’s abundance and peace and life everywhere you look. It’s the Garden of Eden.
At least that’s how things were meant to go, but humans had other plans. We thought we knew better than God, so we rejected his instructions and did things our own way. And in his love for us and his desire to give us freedom as his children, God allowed us to make that choice.
Now we can see the results of this rebellion in the broken places of our world. God desires justice, we spread injustice. God desires community, we spread hatred and isolation. And on and on.
In short, the good creation of God has become cursed by our sin. Bottom line, When we are separated from God humanity breaks the world.
BROKEN PEOPLE BREAK THE WORLD
Let me show you how the Apostle Paul talks about this predicament. Turn with me to Romans 1:28, Page _______.
Towards the beginning of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he paints the picture of a humanity that has lost its anchor. That has lost its identity. Children of God who keep on breaking the world he created.
Romans 1:28-31
Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.
Yikes. You see, in our rejection of God, humans have become adrift from his life-giving presence and abundant purposes. Instead, we just keep on spreading the curse.
To use the Children’s Museum analogy, it’s like the moment we lost sight of our parent we all went feral and our world turned into Lord of the Flies.
Again, When we are separated from God humanity breaks the world. And we see this playing out every single day.
Take a moment and just think about the world you live in. What you see on the news - what you see in line at the grocery store. Think of the brokenness on display.
I don’t know what you’re picturing, but I would guess that there are two kinds of people you see over and over again.
First, you see those who are caught in this whirlwind of selfishness and sin that Paul describes. You see them spreading hatred, and injustice, and pain and all the other broken places. There are people in your life right now whose lives are like this.
But there’s a second kind of person you see. This is the kind of person who is at the mercy of the first type. People who are being crushed by injustice and hatred and isolation. Victims of a broken world. You see them too.
Two types of people experiencing the consequences of separation from God. The brokenness of our world.
But of course, the truth is, most people actually fit into both categories, don’t they? Hurt people hurt people. Abusers have often been abused. Broken people break this world further.
When we are separated from God, our anchor, our lives are defined by brokenness. Both the brokenness we experience and the brokenness we cause. According to the Bible, this is the human condition.
And this, by the way, is why we are so passionate at Grace about loving and being in relationship with our “ones.”
Your “one” is a person you care about who is separated from God. Someone who is breaking the world or being broken by it because they have drifted far from home.
We did a whole sermon series back in February and March about this. And in fact, the whole Reimagine Initiative was designed to help us recommit to loving and praying for and being in relationship with our “ones.”
That’s what the big tree is out in our lobby. Every leaf represents someone’s “one” that we long for God to bring back home. That we long for God to heal.
Ok. We long for healing. But let’s ask the hard question now. Is healing this level of brokenness in our world even possible? So far, we’ve painted a pretty grim picture of our reality.
How do we heal separation from God when humanity seems determined to keep running away?
GOD’S PLAN
Well, let’s talk about it. This series is called “Hope Month” for a reason.
We’ve talked about the storyline of Scripture which paints a pretty dark picture of humanity’s rebellion. But there is a counter-narrative working alongside that story the entire way - and that is the storyline of God’s unfailing love.
You see, it was because of his love that God gave us free will to reject him. But it is also because of his love that he never stopped working to bring us back home.
Our heavenly Father could have written us off long ago, but he never did.
Through the family of Abraham, through the nation of Israel, God worked tirelessly to invite humanity back into his presence. But even when his own chosen people rejected him, God continued pursuing us.
So much so that eventually he made the choice to enter our story himself. To become a human just like us - Jesus Christ - to take our curse, our brokenness, upon himself, and to die on our behalf.
Christ took the curse of sin down into the grave, and when rose again he defeated the power of death over us and flung wide open the doors of Eden. We can return to the presence of God once again.
Thanks to Jesus, we can be saved from our own self-destruction. Even death has no more power over us because we will join Jesus in his resurrection.
Turn with me a few pages to Romans 5. Here Paul describes this monumental turning point in the story.
Romans 5:8-11
God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
Again, I’m reminded of my scary separation from mom at the Children’s Museum. On my own, I was at a complete loss. Terrified and alone. I didn’t know who I was anymore. I couldn’t help myself.
But then I found that museum staff member who could do what I could not. All I could do was say, “Help!” And she took me by the hand.
That is the invitation of Jesus. His hand is extended to every one of us, to do what we could never do on our own. We don’t have to wander anymore because he will lead us home.
If we put our trust in Christ, it doesn’t matter what we’ve done. It doesn’t matter how far from God’s presence we’ve strayed. It doesn’t matter how much we’ve broken the world.
His message to us is the same: “Come on. We’ll find God together.”
But here’s what’s so profound. Not only has Christ given us a new relationship with God (which is spectacular). Not only has he restored our hope in the future (which is profound).
But he has invited us to once more recover the very reason we were born: to join God in healing the broken places of our world. To return to Eden as his life-giving representatives on the earth.
Now that we’re reconciled to God because of Jesus, we don’t just stop breaking the world. If we live the way he taught us, we start to help him heal it.
Thanks to Jesus we can all come back home.
So there you have it. Separation from God is the granddaddy of all broken places. It’s the cause of all the rest. But it is also the first broken place that was healed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And now we can join God face to face - working shoulder to shoulder with our Creator to heal all the rest of them.
CHALLENGES
So what do we do with these ideas, practically? Well, I have three challenges for you to consider this week depending on where you are in your journey. And they all have to do with healing the broken place of separation from God.
First, if you are already a follower of Christ, I want to challenge you to: Deepen your faith.
I said earlier that the reason humanity went so far adrift was because we rejected the instructions of God. We lost sight of his vision for the world.
Well, if you have come home already - if you have put your trust in Jesus - it’s time to go deeper. You’re back in the presence of God. Now it’s time to shape your entire life around his desires, not your own.
Deepen your faith. Because we’ve got work to do!
Oh, and if you want a very practical way to do this, we have a very cool new opportunity coming up next month.
[What We Believe class slide] It’s a 12-week class called “What We Believe.”
[explain class & 3 levels - ministry fair for questions]
If you’re ready to go deeper in your faith, this is where to start. My second challenge to all of you is this:
Stay committed to your “one.”
We all made commitments to be intentional with our “ones” back in March. We committed to pray for them, to love them well, to serve them as the hands and feet of Jesus.
But life happens, our focus drifts, and we get distracted. So I’m reminding us all - six months later - to stay committed to our “ones.”
What would it look like today - this week - for you to take the next step in loving them back home to their Creator? Joining God in helping to heal the brokenness in their lives?
Stay committed to your “one.”
Finally, I want to acknowledge that not everybody here has made a commitment to Jesus yet. Maybe you are skeptical, or you’ve been hurt by the church, or maybe you’re so filled with shame that you don’t believe he’d even accept you.
Regardless of why, if you don’t yet follow Jesus, my challenge is simply this: Come home.
If your life feels adrift… If you are being crushed by the brokenness of this world and you have no hope... If you don’t even know who you are like a 5-year-old lost in the Children’s Museum…
I want you to remember that Jesus is ready to help. His hand is reaching out to take yours. “Come on. We’ll find God together.”
Your job is not to have everything figured out. It’s not to be some kind of perfect person. It’s simply to say, “Help.” And Jesus will take care of the rest.
You can be reunited with God. Reconnected with the source of all life. And it isn’t even a question. Thanks to Jesus, God’s love will bring you home.
—
I’m going to close with a few more words by the Apostle Paul. I want these to be an encouragement to every one of us, especially as we consider the many ways our world is still broken.
Let this truth wash over you and give you hope no matter where you are on your journey.
Romans 8:38-39
I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[PRAY]
Interview with Mark Slaughter (After message)
• Intro Mark
• Director of Evangelistic Partnerships
• InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
• Communicating the gospel & mentoring younger evangelistic leaders around the world
• Question 1: When it comes to loving our "ones" to Jesus, how do we share the good news of Jesus without being pushy or turning into some kind of sales pitch?
• Question 2: There are people here who are not sure about the status of their relationship with God. What would you say to them if they're struggling with belief in Jesus?
• Invitation to meet Mark in the lobby after service
• Reimagine Gift
[set up baptism]
Interview with Teresa Touma (Start of service)
• Setup – New series, introducing you to many of Grace’s partners this month
• Intro Teresa
• Director of U.S. Strategies
• StoryRunners – ministry of Cru
• Helping to heal separation from God around the world through oral storytelling
• Question 1: Today we're talking about the broken place of “separation from God.” How have you seen that broken place playing out in your ministry around the world?
• Question 2: What is one thing (a fact, a story, etc.) which gives you hope about the spread of the gospel these days?
• Invitation to meet Teresa in the lobby after service
• Reimagine Gift
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Welcome
Intro to Hope Month – Will explain more in message.
October 5 Community Food Drive – replacing regular worship by going into our community to serve together.
• Sign up to help: gracechurch.us/hope
Welcome Guests
• QR Code
• Welcome Party
Call for Offering
Reimagine Update
• Recap
• $2.7 million committed, 36% received
• Project Updates: Roof, Central Auditorium, Kids hallways (entries + flooring)
• Keep on giving & keep on praying!