The Traveler's Key

by Pastor Gina Johnson

You know, it's interesting because I feel like now at two years and whatever that we've been together, you all know me pretty well. Maybe you don't know like behind the closed door parts of me but I'm pretty much what you see is what you get. There's a lot of me that you just don't get to see because I don't know if that would be appropriate for church and some of the things I say and the forwardness about me.

And then other times is, you know, I feel things really deeply. And many of you all have met or seen Roary who is best friend and very significant to me. He's always teaching me about managing emotions because we can tend to get caught up in our emotions and say and do things from our emotions.

And one thing that I've told you all in here before is let your actions guide your emotions, not your emotions guide your actions. And I'm such a firm believer in the Holy Spirit and the prompting of the Holy Spirit because I really do believe that is the voice of God within. That is the voice of the eternal I Am.

When it speaks to us, it can speak through us. So, for whatever reason, as I sat on the chancel last Sunday morning with my worship leader, looking at the small group that had come to worship, I thought, “Well, for our small congregation, this would be appropriate for Memorial weekend,” in hopes that everyone missing is out celebrating, whether they're chasing and watching grandkids, reuniting with family or celebrating those who have gone on before us like many people have done this weekend.

And it made me think that sometimes it's just the way it goes. Palm Sunday was like the way our Easter Sunday should have been. And then our Easter Sunday was more of a reflection of how Palm Sunday should have been in attendance. So I said, “Eh, just shrug it off, Gina, shrug it off, it's not a big deal.”

It's kind of interesting because I don't know how you feel when you sit in the sanctuary and you see how empty it is. I would imagine because many of you know this is your home, your family, the place some of you have grown up in or have been here for several years of your life. This is a place where you've shown up to laugh, to cry, to give your offering, but not just financially, to offer your hands, to offer your hearts, to offer your prayers.

You've probably come in this place with attitudes of fire, wanting correction and remedy right away. And you've probably come in here with unending joyous celebration over something that's happened. I would believe that many of you that have been here for a long time has seen this place a lot fuller. You know, I think one of the highest attendances, at least when I first came to FCC was probably between 110 and 120. But when I first got here, if I remember correctly, we averaged anywhere from 60 to 70. And we all know what we believe in our own mind of why attendance changed and some of us have our different reasons.

I was sitting there last Sunday, thinking about my message, because that's what I do as I'm getting ready; I pray and I think about my family and I think about you, and I think about my message because that's what I'm here to do. I'm here to speak the word that God has put on my heart. And my message that day was very much about enduring the road when you're at that place where the vision doesn't seem to line up with the fulfillment of the vision. When you're at that place where you've seen something and you believe something, but you're not there yet. When you're at that place where you have had the vision before you and you felt motivated and excited, but then you were a little challenged, a little unsure, a little deterred and even stuck, wondering when could that vision reach fulfillment.

And now I'm speaking a little bit from my message and a little bit from where my heart was prompted. Because as I was sitting there and I was thinking about all the emptiness in the room, I was also thinking about the hymn “In This Very Room,” how there is quite enough of all these things because Lord Jesus is here.

It just reminds me of some of the things that I say often where I say, “Gosh, but how do you keep going with what you see and hear? And what you see and hear does not match what you see and hear.” Then I heard Roary's voice telling me not to let my emotions get the best of me as I started to tear up. And then I walked up to the table to pray over the offering and as one of my dear deacons sat it on the table, I appreciated his smile and his thank you, that gave me a moment to take my mind off the fact that I looked in there and there was a $1 bill and a $5 bill.

And that says nothing about what's been given outside of the worship service, throughout the month, online and underneath those plates. But at the same time, because of the story that I carry on, it said a lot. It said, “Dang it.”

Then I look up at empty pews and it says, “Dang it some more.” And so I sat in a front pew during the special music, and I thought about it all. I don't know how many people will get this, but have you ever felt responsible for something really big and really beautiful and really important and no matter how much you think you're putting into it and how much you're trying, it just doesn't seem to be going the way that you thought it would go, you're just not seeing the results as fast as you wanted?

Maybe it's a medical condition. Maybe it's an injury. Maybe it's a relationship. Maybe it's a job promotion. Maybe it's looking for that new job. Maybe it's making friends at school. Maybe it's losing weight and getting in better shape. Whatever it is, you ever hit that moment where you're like, I'm responsible for this and dang it, it's not happening?

Now, I don't believe, at least I hope not, that my congregation walked out of church last Sunday when I spoke about that and said things like, “Well, that was funny. She knows good and well why this is like this. She hasn't done this or we haven't done that or we're not doing this.” I don't wanna believe that's what goes on, but I'm human just like everyone else.

I give life to the big vision that I know is coming forth, but sometimes I give a little—or maybe I mean a lot—of life to things that I know are not true. Just like when I was younger and something would go wrong or I would miss out on something or I didn't feel quite adequate in a certain way, sometimes I give a little—or sometimes I give a lot—of life to things that are not true.

The power of the Holy Spirit is to remind us that in those moments where we're trying to give a little bit (or a lot) of life to something that's not true, that we don't need to give any life to it. So, as I sat there in that moment, I thought, “This is how I'm gonna open my message today,” because I wanted tell them, we were having an event on June 7th and it may not have been anything they were interested in attending. We've had events in the past, Lenten lunches, talent shows, different things and they might have thought, “Well, that's late at night or that's not my thing or I don't wanna do that or there's another one of Gina's ideas. Who knows how it's gonna go? I'll send a check or I'll send food or I'll send my prayers.”

But, as I told them that Sunday, I am telling you today, growing a community like we have, this is not my responsibility. This is our responsibility. And I asked them, “Show of hands. Who loves the love that they feel from this community?” That's right, they all raised their hands. And I asked, “Show of hands again, who loves those moments when we're here and we see this place full of laughter and smiles and we catch that person who we haven't seen in forever and we remember what they've done for us and what they've meant to us and what they still mean, who loves that?” Again, everyone raised their hands.

Then I asked a harder question, “And who knows that getting this place back to that point is gonna be hard as crap?” They raised their hands again.

We were in agreement, so I continued with, “Right. But it's not gonna happen if we don't stay the course. It's not gonna happen if we don't invite people to these things that may not make any sense to us, but maybe, just maybe it's gonna make sense to someone else. And it's not gonna happen if we don't attend that goofy talent show, if we stay home and say, ‘I don't plan to sing. I really don't wanna go. It's gonna be kind of boring,’ but you're part of this family, so show up. Just show up.”

I know everyone who attended that Sunday service and so I told them that I had a great talk with one of our respected members and we were in firm agreement that everyone is doing all they can and there should be no guilt, no shame. I said to them, “If you are doing all you can, thank you. Thank you. We appreciate it. We are grateful. It means so much to us.

“But now I just wanna ask you all, and you don't have to raise your hands this time, are you doing all you can? Have you ever taken one of our invitation cards off the welcome center and left it on your restaurant table? Have you ever called up someone and said, ‘You know, our church is doing this thing. I bet it's gonna be amazing. It's not really for me, but you should check it out.’

“Have you ever gone to someone and said, ‘Hey, you know, I know you already got your own church and that's awesome, but we're having this event coming up and I'm not trying to pull you from your church, but you should join me.’ Or going up to that person and saying, ‘You know, we've never talked spirituality and I don't really know how to do this because this isn't my thing to invite people to church, but I love the people at my church and I love what we're doing and we would love for you to come.’

“How many of you all have been in a neighborhood so long that you know most of your neighbors and then all of a sudden a new person moves in who you don't know and it's nice to smile because they've moved in with children or they moved in with just a different kind of energy and it's good to have new blood in the community. Did you invite them to church? Did you invite them to a small group? Did you invite them to an activity?”

It's true, nobody signed up for that message that morning, including myself. I did not work on writing the message I had planned, to bring this one instead, but boy, it was fitting. It was so fitting. And I just want to say, “Thank you.” I am grateful for everyone who was there that morning, for those who were at home watching our livestream, and I truly did understand those who couldn't be there. I also want to thank you, reader, for sharing this moment with us.

But then I also want to say not for me, but for the love that you feel for this place, for the anger you feel when we think about closing this community, for the fear and sadness you feel when you think about our budget not meeting or not exceeding our dreams, for the people who have gone on before us to make a legacy here, for the people that have come and served and retired and moved on, but most of all for yourself and for your love of Christ Jesus, tell people about us, invite people. Share our messages on your social media.

You can use my line. We're kind of small. A lot of our people are really seasoned, but boy, we have love and generosity in a great place. So come and join. And maybe they don't come the first time, the fifth time, the 12th time, but if you are genuine and you are making the offer, they will show up.

Over 300 years ago, there was a man named John Bunyan and he was in an English prison. He wasn't in prison for doing anything like murder, stealing, getting into brawls, not paying his dues in any way. He was actually in there for preaching without a license. And when he was younger, he was not the most holy guy, didn't really care much for religion or Christianity or anything like that, but his wife came along and it was through her light and through her example that he got pulled into learning more about the Bible, about God, about what it meant to be a Christian.

And when he got in it, boy, he got in it. He started studying and he started reading and he became just a great, outspoken, passionate, loving speaker with the good news. Then there was a time where he was imprisoned because things were getting corrected over in England, things were getting changed and the way you go about doing these things were getting aligned with what was wanted by the higher ups.

Well, while he was in prison, he wrote some books. And one book that he is most famously known for, and I may have mentioned it in the past, is The Pilgrim's Progress. Such a beautiful book. And what that book is about is about a man named Christian who has a wife and who has children, but he starts getting that stirring. He knows there is something more than the life that is around him. He knows that there is something more. And for the sake of his family, for the sake of the people he loves, for the sake of himself and wanting that relationship with God, he sets out on a journey. He decides that he's going to leave.

This is an allegory so there's all kinds of cool metaphors and analogies and there's all kinds of symbolism.

So he decides, “I'm gonna leave the city of destruction and set out for the celestial city.” And some people think he's crazy. His wife doesn't want him to go, but he says, “No. It's that feeling. When God calls me, I'm going to go. When the spirit sends me, I'm going to trust and go.”

I know many of you at some point in your life made a decision that maybe some people cocked their head sideways and were like, “Are you sure? Do you really think you should?” Or maybe it was even more adamant, like, “You're gonna associate with those people?” Have you ever had those days where it was like, “You're gonna go to that protest? You're gonna sit in those seats? You're gonna get involved with that noise, are you sure?” And still you were passionate enough that you did it.

So along the way, Christian is trucking and he experiences discouragement, distraction, delay, and deep doubt. However, through it all, he keeps going. In Galatians 6: 1-9, it says,

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone without comparing themselves to someone else. For each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.

Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh from the flesh will reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Now, there's a lot of sin and destruction, and you better do this, and if you sow this, you're gonna reap that. If we take sin back to its original meaning, it means missing the mark. So, if a man is caught up in sin, what I say is it's any place you are giving way to the illusion that you can be separated from God. Any place where you let what you are experiencing convince you that somehow you are separated from God, whether it is illness, whether it is relationship or financial problem, whether it is another form of hardship, any time that you allow that thing to be the blocker between you and God, you are in sin, because all sin is, is giving life to the illusion that we are ever separated from our Father-Mother God, that we are ever separated from our sovereign, faithful, loving God in heaven, in heaven within us.

When you look at this passage, this is a message for any of us who are on the path, especially when we have a vision that's taking us somewhere and we get a little challenge, we get a little deterred and we fall into that place of being stuck. There's different points here that Paul is trying to make.

One point he's trying to make is that be gentle with others, but be honest with yourself. We’re so quick to look around and criticize what might not be going right, to point out where other people are caught in illusion, where other people are missing the mark, where other people aren't doing what's expected of them. But how often do we stay honest with ourselves? When we see someone falling and missing the mark, restore them gently, carry their burdens, but also recognize you are responsible for yourself.

How am I taking care of myself? How am I fulfilling God's call in my life in order to help fulfill the call to help others? Because it is very important that we love God and love our neighbor. And as I say, you can't love God if you don't love your neighbor and you can't love your neighbor if you don't love God. But let's go a little further.

Love your neighbor as yourself. So, when you truly love God, you love yourself, you carry your load and you share in all that's been given to you. It's important. You don't have to compare yourself with anybody. You don't have to pretend to be something you're not. You can be honest and you can be inviting.

Let’s go back to my friend Christian who's on the way to the celestial city and along the way he meets a couple friends and the first friend that he meets is Faithful. Faithful.

Do we have a friend named Faithful in our life? Can we look in the mirror and see that friend, Faithful? Faithful walks with him into the city of vanity. And the city of vanity in The Pilgrim's Progress is Vanity Fair. And it's wonderful because it really gives a great representation of what the world tries to do.

The world is a continuous market, just like the city of Vanity Fair, that's trying to tempt you with things that are temporary. You might run into a struggle or a hardship and you're gonna embrace it and cling to it like it's the end of the world, that it's what's gonna make or break you. But it's only temporary.

What's eternal and what's forever is love. What's eternal and what's forever is God. What's eternal and what's forever is the promise.

And it's interesting, because as they're going through this Vanity Fair, they continue to see how the world is pulling at these people. It even says in the story that this place was deliberately set up by Beelzebub and Legion and some others. And you know, it's easy when we look around the world to see how things that are not of God, how things that are not of who we are can easily beckon and call us away.

Faithful and Christian get pulled into trial because they won't give in. They won't give in to the noise around them. They won't go down those streets. They won't get caught up in the lively crowds, even though they look fun and they look tempting, they recognize that it's noise, it's distraction, it's spectacles. They don't give in to that, so they come under fire. They come under trial, and what happens there is Faithful boldly stands up for what he believes in, for what he knows God has called him and Christian to do.

For that, he is martyred. For that, he loses his life. Now, I'm not expecting anyone to go out and get martyred, but how far are you willing to go to speak the truth of God's love? Because I think inviting someone to be a part of something great and fantastic and gracious and loving and generous is not that hard.

At times, there are gonna be challenging circumstances that really try to pin us down. The world is really gonna be calling us. And in that moment, can we be like Faithful and boldly stand in truth and say, “I'm not getting pulled into that?”

Sometimes, just like Paul is saying, you need to bear one another's burden so you can fulfill the law of Christ. Sometimes, you're gonna be the one that has to carry the promise forward. Sometimes, you're gonna be the one who needs the reminding of the promise. But are we making sure to pay attention, to recognize that we don't have to go the journey alone? We can be Faithful and we can have Faithful beside us.

As you continue in that story, one of the things that Paul says in Galatians 6:7-8 is don't be deceived. Whatever you sow, you reap.

This isn't a threat, this is the truth. What you sow, you will reap. How interesting is it that as they continue in the story and Faithful is martyred, here comes Hopeful. Hopeful comes along beside Christian and Hopeful is more than just a partner to continue on this journey. Hopeful is a spiritual partner, a life partner. Hopeful is a spiritual lifeline to bring Christian through. And they end up getting locked up in the Doubting Castle.

How many of us, when it comes to our life and those different areas I continue to list, how many of us aren't really in this moment because we're sitting in the Doubting Castle? How many of us cannot be present to what is going on in the greatness of this family, whether it's in each other's personal lives, whether it's in the church, whether it's in the community, and we can't hear it or see it because we never stepped out of the Doubting Castle? We never stepped out and joined our friend Hopeful to see it doesn't have to be dark and oppressive. It doesn't have to be a place of imprisonment. It doesn't have to be isolated and lonely.

But you know how they ended up in the Doubting Castle? They strayed off the path. The path was the King's Highway, and instead they took the bypass meadow. How many times are we bypassing what we're being called to do because we think it's gonna be quicker, it's gonna be easier? How many of us see the sinking ship and make the decision to jump ship and watch from afar? You know what it's like being in a board meeting with only a few board members? You know what it's like hearing people's concerns that certain people in the church are doing far more than they should have to do, and yet there's no one to step up and help bear the load.

Everyone will say, “Oh, they're doing a lot. Oh, we're so grateful. Oh, that's so wonderful,” but no one else will step up to make that change. I just want to encourage you all that we can step off the path that reaches the destination we're wanting, and we can go spend time in that Doubting Castle, or we can just stretch a little further. Give a little more. Set that one thing aside just for a season so we can do what we're supposed to be doing here. Don't take the bypass meadow. It may look pretty, it may look easier, but it's not. It doesn't lead to the same place that the path that you're already on will take you.

And when you get to that Doubting Castle, there's a giant there called Despair, and I want you to know, I'm sure many of you have met him before, have seen him, have danced with him, have been imprisoned by him. It doesn't have to be that way.

If you are feeding fear in your life, well, guess what? Fear is gonna walk beside you. But if you are feeding trust, if you are feeding hope and love, then that's what's gonna be beside you. You can either nurture and nourish the things that are not serving you, the things that will continue to get these long messages from your pastor that come with all these “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,” or we can continue to seek to bring our fullest, to bring what we have to offer to those around us.

And if you continue to show up with love and generosity and gratitude, guess what? Love and generosity and gratitude will continue to grow. If you continue to bring 100% of who you are, even on those days where you just don't want to, then guess what? You will see that result because what you sow, you will reap.

All right, guys, we're on the closing point. Everyone take a deep breath, stretch, work out all those kinks. Here we go, coming in for the home stretch. Galatians 6:9, “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap if we don't give up.”

Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap if we don't give up. I won't go into the whole page. I'll tell you that Christian doesn't give up.

I'll tell you that each and every one of you, if you don't want to read the book, there's a cute little animated version on Amazon. And I've read the book once now, I've listened to the audio twice, and I've watched the Amazon. This has all been in the past two months because it was such a powerful message for me.

As Christian is climbing and going and heading on, from the very beginning he has this thing on his back that only gets bigger and bigger as he goes along, and it's called a burden. That burden grows and grows, but he stays the course. And as he stays the course, and as he recognizes the consequences of the times he bypasses, the times he gets pulled in, as he recognizes that when he stays the course, he comes out on top, that burden falls off his back.

Is it a burden to think about the church finances? Is it a burden to see the empty pews? Is it a burden to wonder when this generation that's now here is gone, who will carry it on? Well, stay the course, and that burden will fall away. Because the truth of the matter is, is if we remember who we are, it's not really there. It's never been there. We are children of God, we are the expression of God, and God carries no burden. So when God carries us, there is no burden. And every moment, God is carrying us as we are carrying God.

I'm gonna close with this. Christian didn't always walk in confidence, but he kept walking. And sometimes even when you can't walk, then you just keep crawling. There's a great movie called Remember the Titans that shows this really cool scene where the coach is just cheering on this guy who's hauling someone on his back. But he keeps going with his eyes closed, trusting, trusting, trusting, and he makes it.

I'm gonna tell you all, I don't doubt for a second that you did not receive the message that we were meant to receive today. It's up to you and where you are and your level of awareness to decipher what this was supposed to say to you. But I want you all to hear me and hear me clearly. I say it with love, with love for you, with love for this place and the little bit of time I've been here, but most of all, with love for what I know it means to have an unseparated, non-burdened, amazing relationship with God.

if I didn't have that, I wouldn't write so passionately, almost as if I'm yelling at you today. But I do have that. And I know it's what's gotten me through everything that seemed like I wasn't going to make it through. And why would I not want everyone to experience that, especially with a wonderful family like ours?

When I was little, my Dad gave me a journal. I've always been a journaler. And on the front, it had this poem called “Don't Quit.” I’d like to share it with you now.

“Don't Quit,” unknown author.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

when the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

when the funds are low and the debts are high

and you want to smile, but instead you have to sigh.

When care is pressing you down a bit,

rest if you must, but don't quit.

Life is strange with its twists and turns,

as every one of us sometimes learns.

And many a failure turns about

when he might have won if he'd only stuck it out.

Don't give up, though the pace seems slow.

You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,

the silver tint of the clouds of doubt.

And you never can tell how close you are.

It may be near when it seems so far. So stick to the fight when your heart is hit. It's when things seem worse that you must not quit.

Thanks, Dad, this has stuck with me many years. The celestial city was not just a destination in John Bunyan's story. The celestial city is a symbol of completion, the fullness of who we are and of what God has in store for us.

Lock arms with me and don't quit. And maybe it's a week, maybe it's a year, maybe it's two, but let's all promise each other we're gonna see this place filled with love, filled with light, filled with people. And not because we're celebrating a retirement or a legacy dinner, but because we didn't fricking quit.

Let's pray. Our most gracious and most loving God, we come before you. And God, I say thank you. Because as I sat here praying, you told me to be me. And if I'm an expression of you, God, then I pray that all these beautiful expressions of you, these beautiful individuals heard the message that they needed to hear, heard what the Holy Spirit had planned for them. And I pray that no matter what we felt in all of this, that we don't walk out of here with anger or guilt or shame or doubt or worry, but we walk out of here in the confidence of who we are because of who you are, what we know because of what you've told us.

I pray that we walk out of here with that traveler's key in hand, recognizing just like Christian did, that we always have held that promise and that promise cannot be thwarted. So, God, we thank you, we love you, and we trust you. It's in the most powerful, the most beautiful, the most faithful name of Christ Jesus, we pray.

Amen.