Frantic or Fulfilled
Summary
Do we live a frantic or a fulfilled life? Pastor Fua reflects on Luke 2:42-49 where Jesus even as a a 12 year boy shows us how to live a purposeful and intentional life in Gods house. Jesus shows us how to live a life of passion for God, a life where we can stop searching for fulfillment but rather seek it.
Transcript
Good morning church! Happy Father's Day. Oh, I'm good. I had my moment before. Could have stayed in that moment, huh Michael? Congrats, my bro. Welcome to the white hair and sleepless nights and all the fun.
I'm going to get to it. I'm going to talk to you, share with you on the theme of The Father's House. What does it mean to be a part of the father's house? What it means to serve in the father's house? In the Book of Luke 2:42, here we go.
'When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t miss him at first, because they assumed he was among the other travelers. But when he didn’t show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they couldn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. His parents didn’t know what to think. “Son,” his mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.” “But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” ' Luke 2:42-49
When Jesus was 12 years old, they attended the festival as usual. After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn't miss that at first because they assumed he was among the other travelers. But when he didn't show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they couldn't find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. Three days later, they finally discovered him at the temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard them were amazed at his understanding and his answers. His parents didn't know what to think. "Son," his mother said to him, "why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic searching for you everywhere." Jesus responds, "But why did you need to search? Didn't you know I must be in My Father's House?" Amen.
I titled my message: frantic or fulfilled. Do you live a frantic life or a fulfilled life? And I love this story because young Jesus, I call him 12 years old, 12 years old, but Mary frantically searching for three days. And in our lives, we can search for things and keep searching and keep searching. We never find what we actually are hungering for. And in that search, we're anxious, we're stressed, we're panicking. And even in that moment, we still never find it. My kids, my two daughters, they are Daddy's Girls. "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, everything Daddy, Daddy, oh hi Mom, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, everything Daddy." They want fun. I said to them the other day, "Does this face look like fun?" So we played games. One of the great games we sometimes play is hide and seek, right? We all know the game hide-and-seek, right? So I said to them, "All right, let's play. Let's play." And I said, "All right, here's what we're going to do. You guys go hide. I'll count, and your mom will come find you." And they go, "Hey, hold up." Alex goes, "Hey, go on. We'll play this game. Daddy will go and hide, and girls, you come find me." They're like, "Okay, Daddy. Okay, Daddy. Okay Daddy". This was an indoors game or supposed to be. We played this in the evening. I hid outside, in the corner, right at the first stages. My girls were like, "I can't hear them," and they were like, "Oh Ayla, he's in here, no, no, no, Ariah his in here, right? That's your typical normal for that game." Then the level lifted. "Dad, I don't want to play. I can't find you in this game. I don't want to play this game. I want to play a different game." And they're both having to go with each other. I can hear every word. In the meantime, I'm outside laughing my head off. Then I hear screaming, crying, "Where are you, Daddy? Mommy, mommy, I can't find Daddy. I can't find Daddy." And it goes on and on and on. "It goes, 'Daddy, where are you? Where are you?'" Daddy got to a point where they were doing that. I never moved. I still stayed there, so I'm still in the game. I told them, "I'm committed to the game, so if we're in the game, be committed to it." "All right." Well, what turned things around was Alex had to come out and goes, 'Hey, they really, they really was oh, yeah, okay." So I walk in there, they're crying. I thought, "Oh, yeah, here we go." Their heart rate was up there. They were literally distraught. They literally thought their daddy had left, could not find their daddy. They were in a frantic search for the only thing that could bring them fulfillment, that could bring them peace, could bring them love. Never found it.
We can be frantic in our life, church searching for what will fulfill us and never find it. But what leads to true fulfillment? What is it about the story of a young 12-year-old Jesus? What does Jesus show us on what it means to be in the father's house? He knew what it meant. He knew what it means to be in the house. He knew what it means to live a life of fulfillment. So I want to share with you, Church, on how we as people can lead a life fulfilled and called. Amen.
Make God a Priority
Here's the first thing: make God a priority. Easy one, eh? Make God a priority in your life. Jesus did. Mom and dad, they're gone, they're going home, assuming that Jesus was with the extended family and the other group. They go home. What did Jesus do? He stayed behind. What 12-year-old kid do you know that's going to stay there? They're going to shout out, "Where are you, Mom? Where are you, Dad? Oh, I don't want to do this. This is boring." He stayed there, something that he knew kept him there. Verse 43: After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. Jesus stayed behind because he knew what it took to make God a priority. And here's the thing about making God a priority: we can say we prioritize God, but do we prioritize the things of God in our lives? See, I can't do the whole, "I'm going to walk around and tell everyone here that God is first," and verbally tell you that, but I'll do my best to live a life of someone who shines in that, who reflects that. Do we prioritize time with Him in prayer, in His presence, hungering for Him? We just had a moment before. Do we prioritize those times? Jesus, you see throughout the word of God, He often retreated, He often walked away from people, found a spot on the mountain, wherever it may be, and He spent time with the Lord, prioritizing God by prioritizing the things of God in His life.
'But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. Luke 5:16 (NLT)
Luke 5:16: "Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer."
'One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. ' Luke 6:12 (NLT)
Luke 6:12: "One day soon afterwards, Jesus went up on the mountain to pray, and He prayed to God all night." Making God a priority is the thing that has really stuck out for me. On this point, I've had a lot of people, leaders, and that have spoken into my life in the past and still do right now. And what I love about them is the calm, the collective smile. You never, you rarely hear them say it. You rarely hear them say to you and come up to you and grab you by the collar and go, "God is first, God is priority." You'll rarely hear that. But when you watch them, what you learn from them and how they live their lives, how they walk, right? How they walk, never in a panic. It's not a frantic walk, right? It's a seeking walk. It's just smooth. It's good, calm, collective. And the essence from them is strong. That is someone that I've seen in the past and I see right now, that if someone is going, "I don't only prioritize God, but the things of God, having moments of worship by myself when no one sees."
I love the side there. Many years ago, as a young kid, and as you know, I'm a musician, play keys and that, and I was about 10 years old, and I had to do a final exam. I had to play this piece, this classical piece. I prepared all year for it. But something shifted on that day. I didn't know what it was then, and I was supposed to play the little kiddies piano, which is like that big, right? And instead, I walked up to the stage. I stopped and I went to the grand piano. I went to the grand piano. I can hear the teachers say, "Fua," and my mom and dad are like, "It's my son, it's my son." And everyone else is going, "Get him, get him off." I still went. I went on this grand piano. I didn't play my piece. I just played. I just literally played, played whatever I found in that moment. And that, afterwards, yeah, of course, I failed. I failed a whole year, a whole year's worth of work, failed. Everything like that, and I didn't know what it was. I tried at that stage, trying to figure out what was that. I just wasted all these years. I worked on this piece in my early years of finding Christ. I was playing the keys in the dark in my room. Sometimes I'd turn the light off and I'd just play the keys. I'd use it as a practical way of being able to identify notes without the visual, right? You blacking out everything and play. In my early years, I did that so many times. I finally realized what that moment was. I finally realized many years ago why I failed my exam. It's because at that moment, that was a taste of prioritizing God and the things of God in my life. But I didn't know it then, but I do now. I don't only sit and play keys. I get to know Him in His presence. I seek Him. It's not a search, it's a seek.
So when I ask you, Church, who gets priority in your life? What's priority in your life? Who gets priority in your family? This is a big one. I've learned this. We don't want to make God in our families and a priority in our families because our love for families is greater than our God. We don't want to hurt them. Making God a priority in your life, you know what happens there, Church? You become the person that shows them who Jesus is. You become the person that takes them to that place away from the noise, away from the issues, and go, you know what, this is where I find the Father. This place here, when no one's around and I'm by myself, when there's no lights and no music, prioritizing the Father and having God first, that is the foundation of living a fulfilled life. Amen, that's the first thing.
2. Position Yourself to Grow
The second thing we see here is position yourself to grow. Position yourself in a place where you grow. Jesus did that. Verse 46 says this: "Three days later, Jesus' mother found him in the temple." Stop there. Discovered him in the temple. He wasn't on Netflix or playing video games or eating lollies. Twelve-year-old kid, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. Even a young Jesus knew that he needed to position himself and grow. The foundation of making God a priority, the position to grow. Because, what's the point of knowing God's word if you don't know Him? And verse 47, all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
I don't know about you, man, but when I was 12, called many words, just not amazing. And this brings back memories. These verses here in my culture, and maybe similar to other cultures, we have gatherings, cultural gatherings, where we sit with chiefs and high chiefs in the head hono, which we call a Satu of the family, right? We sit together and we feast and we talk and we have community discussions. All these things, but as a young kid growing up and as a 12-year-old growing up in that environment, man, I hated it. It was boring, listening, and I'm not listening to anything, right? That's how you felt when you sit in these. You sit in these, you're like, these are high chiefs, man, honor and respect like that is pinnacle. But for me and my siblings, I'll tell you some of the things we're worried about and thinking about, right? First one is, I'm hungry. I'm tired. Great, now they're singing. This is boring. Can we hurry this up? I'm still hungry. Why are they still singing? Two hours later, didn't they just sing that song? This guy talks too much. Want to go home. That was the thought process of a 12-year-old kid in that situation. That's what I was feeling. The funny thing is, now I'm at an age now where I get to sit at the table with my brothers and my brother-in-law who are chiefs and high chiefs, and I look at my nieces and nephews. I have a straight face, 'cause you got to do this in leadership, you got to, but deep down inside, I'm pissing myself laughing. I look at my niece there, and I'm like, yep, that's the hungry face there. I want to go home face. You're angry. You're fast asleep, right? And I'm going through each one, and in my head, I'm going, ah, those were the days. Look at my brother, he goes, oh yeah, those were the days. Been there, done that. But I did learn a few things and what it means to respect your elders, what it means to respect your leaders. I grew up in a time where your elders or your leaders would say something, there is no ifs or buts, yes, send me. That was the time, that was the culture, that was the heart of it. I learned what it means to have honor, I learned what it means to live a life of service, to serve people.
Jesus positions himself in the temple to learn, to grow, to be about all the things of the Father. He was already positioned before the temple.
'There the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was on him. ' Luke 2:40 (NLT)
In verse 40, it says this: "There the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God's favor was over him." As a baby already positioned, he was filled. He was already in that moment, he was already in the presence.
'Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.' Luke 2:52 (NLT)
And we go to the very end, it says this in Luke 52: "Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people." He grew from being filled, he grew from prioritizing God to position for growth. Even Jesus needed to grow, even Jesus knew he needed to position himself to grow. Even in this passage and in this chapter here, he's gone from filled with the spirit and the favor of God to he grew in wisdom, stature, and favor. Jesus grows constantly throughout the word of God. And the thing is amazing about this passage is we're not talking about the Jesus in John, we're not talking about the Jesus who calms the storms, the ultimate sacrifice. We're not talking about that Jesus. We're talking about this Jesus here who stayed behind when his mom and dad went home. And even then, he grabbed hold of making God first and positioning himself to serve the Father in the Father's house.
Where are you positioned, Church, in your life, in your situations? Where do you find yourselves? You can say you follow Christ, I prioritize God, but where are you positioning yourself? The ultimate gift of position yourself, you realign things, you may have fallen off the wagon, you may have dipped in here and here and there, you position yourself, you realign that again, you learn, you grow, you bring wisdom. Isn't that what you want, Church? Don't you want you and your family positioned in a place where there's peace and comfort? I know I want that. I want that for my family, Church. So we prioritize God, God is first, we position ourselves to grow.
3. Passion for the Father's House
And my third and final point is passion for the Father's house. I know you're thinking, here we go, Pastor Fua, for of the word passion, his favorite word, Fua loves passion, everything's passion, passion this, passion that. When we prior and position yourself, your passion for God and his house grows until you can't think of doing anything else than serve him. Yeah, that is why passion is needed. I can be gifted in many things, and I can and this and that and stuff, but without passion, without passion, I fall off.
Verse 48 says this: "His parents said, 'We know what to think.' His mother said to him, 'Why have you done this to us?' Stop there. How many times in our frantic search for something to bring us fulfillment have we cried out those words when we don't find it? Why have you done this? I know when I lost my dad, I'm like, why, why, why have you done? I literally said that. Why have you done? It doesn't make sense. Your father and I have been frantic searching for you everywhere." Verse 49, Jesus goes, "But why did you need to search? Didn't you know that I must be in my father's house." The King James version is, "It must be by my father's business." But I love the words, "I must." Someone with passion would say that, "I must." Someone lacking passion would say, "We'll see how we go. She'll be right, mate. So good, sweet as." That's not the passion. The passion is, "I must." There's no ifs or buts. There's no, "Yeah, maybe." In that, as defined as, "I must be in my father's house." That was the burden of the life of Jesus, to do the Father's will. I must be about my father's business.
Frantic search for something that brings fulfillment is a lack of passion to seek fulfillment. When you have passion for his house, your search turns into seek. I no longer frantically search for fulfillment. I seek the Father, and through that, the fulfillment is found. The comfort and the joy of being a child of God, I find in the Father.
David says it is better to spend one day in your house than a thousand elsewhere.
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Where is your passion for the house? Where is your passion for the father to prioritize God, to position yourself, to have a passion to now propel yourself to the next level, to the point where it consumes you?
That's what I love about Jesus and John Chapter 2. It is a story of Jesus and he just takes passion to a whole new level. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival in the temple. He saw things that weren't about the father: merchants selling cattle, sheep, doves for sacrifices, dealers on the tables exchanging money. Here's what he does: he grabs ropes and makes a whip and he chases them out. "Get out of here," he goes, "get these things out of here. Stop turning my father's house into a marketplace." He's gone from a "I must" to now chasing people out. We're not called to serve a marketplace, we're called to serve the father's house.
And then what it says in the next verse 17, he says, "This then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the scriptures: passion for God's house will consume me, consume me, takes over you." That's why passion is so important for the father's house. You can turn up to the father's house, but if you have no passion, have you walked into a marketplace then? To prioritize God is the foundation to position yourself in the temple direction. The passion for the Lord's house consumes you.
Why are some people so passionate about God and others not? Because of their priority, their position, and their passion for the father. What are you passionate about church? What are you passionate about in your life? What area in your life do you want God to move in? Is God a priority in your life? Have you positioned yourself? Will you hear the word of God? Will you hear him speak to you? Will your passion take you to the next level and your calling?
Something beautiful about the father's house is everyone is welcome: your burdens, your regrets. Maybe some of you here and just like me, your father's not around anymore on Father's Day. When my dad passed away and not Father's Day, yeah, I was in that sad and I wish he was here and all that, but when I positioned myself in the father's house, the passion for God was greater than my loss. So now when Father's Day comes, it's a celebration. Because you may be here and maybe you've grown up not having a father, maybe your relationship with your father is not quite where it needs to be, maybe you wish your father supported you or loved you the way you want to be loved, maybe your father's not here and you wish you had said something to him before he left. Can I say this to you? You have a Heavenly Father, you have a heavenly father who loves you, who calls you by name. He calls you to find that place, the place of retreat where you push everything away, the place where you push your family away and everything and you spend with him. You have that father, you have the father that positions you where you need to be, not where you want to be, you have a father that has passion for you, that loves you for you, that calls you by name.
I wish was celebrate today, celebrate the father. I get the team up, please, as I was putting this message together, it always, always amazes me that Jesus was 12 years old, really does man, doesn't that put into perspective 12-year-old didn't chase after Mom and Dad, didn't chase after anything, if anything, he stayed back because he knew what was there, he knew that he couldn't be planted if he went back home, he knew that he couldn't be positioned if he went back home, he knew that he would lose passion if went back home, but he stayed back for something greater, a greater life, a life of fulfillment. It wasn't so much that Mary discovered him in the temple, he purposely positioned himself there, he had clarity, he had vision, he knew what it meant to follow the father and the passion. "I must be in my father's house." For me and my house, I will serve the Lord, amen.
This is what we're going to do. I'm going to get you guys to stand, I'm going to dim the lights, we're going to spend some time doing exactly that: prioritizing God, positioning yourself, and then we're going to finish off with passion.
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Stay in this church, stay in this for me, stay in this for me, not only fathers but mothers, daughters, and sons, you are called to prioritize God, to position him, to have passion. So before we finish up, we're going to declare, "Great are you Lord, great are you Lord." This morning we already prioritized God, Adrian positions with others at the altar, and now we're going to bring passion. We're going to bring passion to his house, so why don't you lift up your hands.
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Every eye close, we thank you, Father, that you are always the heavenly father every day and in your place, in your house is Father's Day. We thank you, Lord, there we get the opportunity to say, you know what, I follow Jesus, but through my life and my actions and how I live my life, that's how I follow you, Lord. I pray, Father, that in this place, you will continue to position each and every person here this morning for purpose. There's a calling on their lives, oh God. I pray that you would cover them, I'll cover. I pray that you would fill them with wisdom, stature, and favor, Lord God, so when the time is right, Lord God, and they feel it for themselves and they retreat to a place, Lord God, I pray for passion in their lives. Lord, I pray that they will take hold of passion that I me will serve this house, Lord, your house called that I must be before my father's house. Lord, in your presence, we thank you, Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Church.
Come on, why don't we give for an awesome hand for a brilliant word. I know we'll have a fan club later. I just can I just say I was reminded, you know, I really, I mean I didn't get to be here last time you preached, but I just love sitting there hearing the word of God from this man because every word he speaks is coming from here and it's authentic and real. I remember when I came to this church almost 9 years ago, he was still playing keys back then, just part of the team faithfully serving in the house, and he didn't know back then that almost 9 years later he'd be up here preaching to this church, helping lead this church, but that was God's call in his life, and I just want to say we're really proud of you, and he's an awesome father, an awesome man of God, and God's got greater things yet. Hey, and can I encourage you, and I know we do, but can I encourage you look to examples like this father, this man of God, because what you're hearing, he's not perfect, I'm not perfect, but what you hear from his heart is real, and he's been there. I can tell you some of you come in and you see him up front, you go, you haven't seen the years and years of living that out in the father's house, and this is what God does, so thank you Fua.
This is what we're going to do, we're going to finish, but I want to say a prayer. We're going to say a prayer to give some of us in this place maybe you've been away from God, but you say I want to give my life to Christ, this is the place to do it. I want to be in the father's house, I want to surrender. Maybe you've been away from God, maybe you've never given your life to Christ, but can we just bow our heads for a second and we're going to give you that opportunity. We're going to say a prayer together, and if you want to say, "God, I want to give you my life, first time or rededication," you say this prayer with us. Dear Lord Jesus, I want to be in relationship with you. I need you. I believe you're the Son of God. I believe you're son, you died on the cross for my sin, you rose again from the dead, so forgive me, Lord Jesus. Come into my heart, be my Lord and my savior. I want to live in your house. In Jesus' name, I pray, amen, amen. Praise God.
If you said that prayer, I want you to come to our get connected desk. We've got a Bible we want to give you, and it's an awesome Bible, you'll love it, and we want to help you on your walk with God, 'cause he is the one for you. Amen. Well, guys, thank you for coming. You guys are amazing. We got morning tea out there, coffee. Happy Father's day. God bless you guys. See you next week.