Now What?

 

Chad Jacobson - Senior Pastor - City Church Live

 

Now What?

Over the course of my life I have made many moves; some strategic, some emotional, some physical, some mental (my family might say this is the move of choice for me).  I often find myself in the same place asking the same question, “now what?” 

 Hebrews 8:8-13

“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ⁹ not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. ¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ¹¹ None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. ¹² For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”¹³ In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

 I can distinctly remember two times in my ministry life when I was ready to throw in the towel.  Funny enough, they both came after some of my greatest victories in ministry, not my greatest defeats.  As youth pastors in Green Bay, we had put together a city-wide youth event.  I had organized a well-known band from Australia called the Planetshakers to play and one of my great friends in ministry, Jurgen Matthesius, to speak.  We had a packed house – nearly 2,000 young people in two separate meetings. To my knowledge, this was the single largest youth event in the history of that city.  By all accounts, a huge success, and after it was all over I was ready to quit.  I found myself facing this same question, “now what?” For the first time in my life I didn’t have an answer.  I was confused, I felt alone and I had no direction:  A recipe for disaster for anyone in ministry.  This was the first time I had actually achieved something that I had prayed and worked for, and it scared me. Not because of what God had done, but because I didn’t know what to do next.      

 I am constantly challenging myself, partly because of my youth and partly because of my personality, to keep moving forward.  I am rarely satisfied, just ask my staff.  The motivation of my life has become this question, “Now What?”

 I don’t want to run away from tradition and history, but my prayer is that I will never be caught “growing old…ready to vanish away.” 

 Chad Jacobson

Why I Read?

Why I Read?

 I love good books; I read a lot!  I’ll devour almost anything in the non-fiction section of the bookstore.  Some people find it strange that four or five times a year I’ll pick a day, get on an airplane early in the morning, and fly from city to city all day.  I ordinarily plan those trips on my day off and I spend the time studying, reading, and thinking.  It has turned into one of my great joys and something that I really look forward to. 

 A few years ago I felt like God was asking me, “Why do you read?”  A fairly foolish question in my opinion, but as I thought more about that question my mind flashed to so many encounters Jesus had and some of the utterly ridiculous questions He had asked. 

 Mark 10:46-51 

⁴⁶ Now they came to Jericho. As He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging. ⁴⁷And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 
⁴⁸ Then many warned him to be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁹ So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man, saying to him, “Be of good cheer. Rise, He is calling you.” ⁵⁰ And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus. ⁵¹ So Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” 

 I was reading my Bible (pat on the back) a few days later, and that same question hit me right between the eyes. I understood exactly why God was asking me that question. 

 I was studying for my next sermon, not for me. 

 My heart broke as I sat in my study.  What had my spiritual life become?  Had it changed from the passionate pursuit of my savior to the passionate pursuit of a better message?  In that moment, I changed the way that I study.  I don’t study looking for a sermon anymore. What has amazing me more than anything else is this:  Not only do I feel closer to God than I ever have before, He has unlocked things in scripture for me personally and for our church that continue to blow my mind.  So I’ll ask you the same question I felt God asking me:

 Why do you read?

 Chad

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