Jesus Is Not in the Audience

Josh Stephens: Good morning, LCU. How's everybody doing? Good. Can I get the lights on real quick, Ben?
Real quick, I've had a lot of people ask if I got some sun this weekend. The answer is yes.
I don't normally look like this. As I was scrolling through different emojis, I thought,
I kind of resemble that. That's pretty accurate. If you laugh a lot, it'll make me do that,
and we don't want that. It's chapel. We don't need to do that thing. And then I was like,
there's a better representation out there of who I am really. Uh, there we go. And so I don't want
to be anger, but, um, sometimes those things happen. So, uh, real quick, I need a volunteer.
Um, is Daniel Vargas in here? Okay. Come here. Come here. This is this I'm inviting Dan. Yeah.
You can come up here. Yeah. That's the key point of volunteer. I didn't, I don't need you to just
stand there. So we're going to do something. Say hi to everybody. Hi, everybody. That's Daniel.
Okay. Okay. So what we're going to do real quickly, do you know who Reagan Branch is?
No. Okay. So that's Reagan Branch right there. She's a resident director over at Gullo Hall.
Do you see Reagan out there? No. You don't. It's hard to see her right now, right? Okay. Okay. So
come here with me. We're going to stand you in the middle. I'm going to have you face me. I know
This is awkward, and I should have asked consent to touch your shoulders.
So Reagan is going to dress.
You definitely should have asked consent to touch my shoulders.
Reagan is going to do something right now where she's dressed up like one of our favorite Disney characters, the Beast.
And so now I want you to turn around.
Do you see Reagan anywhere out there?
Do you see the Beast out there?
I don't think they're in that section.
It's hard to tell over here.
If you look over in that, I see something weird in the middle.
You see all those people?
Yeah.
You see Reagan over there?
Okay.
Okay.
So we're going to do a thing called where's Reagan?
Okay.
So you're going to turn around again and I'm going to, may I remove your hat?
Yeah.
Thank you.
Okay.
So Reagan is going to move.
You keep facing that way and we're going to kind of, this kind of blindfold you, kind
of not.
We're just covering up your face.
It's okay.
I'm an ugly man.
No.
Well, it doesn't hurt your looks.
We'll put it that way.
Okay, so what we're going to do is we're going to blindfold you,
and Reagan is going to go somewhere else to sit down, okay?
And as she goes, can you see that way?
Okay, we'll tie this.
As she's out there, your only job is you've got to go find her.
That's it, okay?
Literally one person wearing a mask, you should be able to find.
And here's the deal.
We're here to help.
So if you need help, just ask.
I'm sure the audience may help you.
Can you see it all?
Are you covered at all?
Yeah.
Okay.
So just so I know, where is...
I don't...
Oh, there you are.
Okay.
So you go find Reagan.
They may help you.
They may not.
I don't know if you trust these people.
Some seem shady.
So definitely the crew you were by, I don't know how to trust them.
Go find Reagan.
Okay.
Go straight.
Yeah, okay, okay.
That's okay.
So they sit, no, no.
Wow, there's stairs.
Let's use those stairs.
It's right here.
No, no, no.
Gosh.
So should he take the stairs to his right or left?
Left.
Which way do you want to go, right or left?
Okay, okay.
I will help you.
No one wants you to fall off this stage more than I do,
But for safety's sake, I'm going to guide you.
And then, all right, there's a step.
Look at me.
Look at me being helpful.
There's another one.
Yep.
You know how stairs work.
Okay.
Okay.
Now go find Reagan.
It's up to them.
Listen to the audience.
Okay.
Remember boundaries, Daniel.
Boundaries are good.
Oh, that's good.
If you need help, just ask for help, Daniel.
Yeah.
And watch those hands.
Yeah.
We need a hand check here.
So close.
You found Reagan.
All right, Daniel.
Daniel, come on up here.
You can remove the mask.
Reagan, you keep your mask on.
Daniel, come on up here.
No, Reagan, you don't have to keep it on here.
Guys, give it up for Daniel Vargas.
Yeah, you're up here with me, my man.
Okay, so I clearly did not think this through,
and there was a litany of possible Title IX violations
that could have happened during that time.
For those on that side, I'm sorry.
You don't need to...
Well, we'll talk about that later.
Okay, so real quick, I got a mic for you.
I'm going to hold the mic because I know you.
So what was that like for you, Daniel?
Daniel: I mean, I was just very trustworthy.
And honestly, if I was like, if I run into something, at least it'll be a human.
Okay, okay.
And humans are known to be very squishy.
Josh Stephens: Again, another Title IX violation.
Okay, so did you hear people telling you the wrong way to go?
Daniel: If I'm being honest, I was just listening to everybody but these people in the center.
Josh Stephens: Okay, that's good.
Daniel: That's good.
Josh Stephens: Real quick, though, you knew, I mean, you knew some people were in there.
You knew there was a big room of people.
But there's one person that you for sure knew was in here, and that was Reagan.
So why didn't you ask?
Because I said, if you need help, just ask.
Why didn't you call out for Reagan?
Because I trusted my peers.
I got y'all, guys.
Okay.
Daniel: I got y'all.
Josh Stephens: We're not going to trust an adult in a Disney mask, but we are going to trust.
That's good.
That's good.
I want you to just sit right there, just on the stage.
Like sit right there on the stage.
You can let your legs hang off.
This is how we do life with Jesus sometimes.
We treat Jesus like he's in our audience and we're going to live however we want to live.
We're going to do whatever we want to do.
But when it comes to having a relationship with Jesus, do you think Jesus wants to be out in the audience?
No, he doesn't.
He wants to be right by our side.
He wants to have a relationship with us.
Not really throwing up the peace on, that's okay.
But he wants to be right here.
He wants to see us.
He wants to know with us.
For LCU's sake, he wants to walk with us, okay?
that's why in Matthew chapter 7 we read Jesus's words he says ask and it will be given to you
seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you for whoever asks receives
whoever seeks finds and to him who knocks the door will be open Jesus invites us into relationship
and we live in a world where we want to treat,
sometimes by our own actions,
sometimes by the encouragement of others,
we want to include Jesus in our audience,
but we forget his desire is to be right beside us.
His desire is to walk with us
as we walk through those doors of life.
I know a lot of you, some of you are about to graduate.
If you're about to graduate, raise your hand.
Yeah.
Okay, that's nice.
You may be worried about what the future has to hold.
Today is a Shep Day.
If you're here with Shep Day, raise your hand.
Yeah, you have all, yeah, y'all should clap for them.
Yeah.
Clap for them and we want you to come to LCU.
Okay.
But you have a lot of doors in front of you.
Relationship with Jesus doesn't mean that we live life
and have him out in our crowd.
It means we invite him.
We ask, we knock, we seek.
for him to sit beside us and guide us.
This week is a special week.
For people of faith, we celebrated Palm Sunday yesterday,
and we know Easter is this coming Sunday.
And I know you guys are looking at Friday,
and you're like, yeah, Friday's good, no class.
That's how good Friday is.
When we think that way, and yay,
thank you, Dr. G, for allowing us to have off Friday.
But that's not what makes Friday good.
What makes Friday good is Jesus chose to be an atoning sacrifice for you and I.
So he doesn't have to be away from us.
So he doesn't have to be somewhere in a random audience so that we can have relationship with him and he can sit right beside us.
The power of that curtain being torn in the temple is what separated the holy of holies was no longer separated from the rest of the temple anymore.
By Jesus choosing to be our atoning sacrifice,
by him following the will of the Father,
God isn't this distant Lord.
Now we have relationship with him.
Now he sits with us.
He calls to us.
And he walks with us in life.
Throughout this week, I want to encourage you,
go into the Gospels, read about Jesus' last week.
And when you get to Friday,
I'm okay with you thanking God for no classes.
But something so much greater happened on that Friday.
He chose death for you.
He chose death for me.
And then we celebrate in a way that the world does not understand
because Sunday is a celebration of the greatest thing to ever happen in humanity's history.
An empty tomb.
Women went there expecting to see a stone covering a tomb.
They talked to an angel.
They went back and they talked to disciples.
those disciples got to see Jesus
and the history of the world
was forever changed.
May we celebrate that this week.
Let's close with a prayer
and then we're going to allow
our Shat Day friends
to go ahead and exit
because we're going to have candy
outside with them.
When they get out there
y'all go have candy with them.
Talk to them.
Say hi to them
and then have a great rest of your week.
And again, remember
Jesus wants to be right by your side.
Let's pray.
God, we love you
and we thank you for your love for us.
Father, I'm sorry,
because I know there's times
where I've treated you
like a person in an auditorium full of people.
I've treated you like I wanted you present,
but I wanted to be the one on stage.
I wanted to live my life,
and instead, I didn't seize the opportunity
of inviting you into something
so much more personal,
something you designed, relationship.
So Lord Jesus, I thank you,
especially this week,
But I pray that this is a prayer of ours, not just this week, but every week.
I thank you for your sacrifice, for you choosing the cross so we didn't have to,
for you bearing our sin.
And I am so grateful for the message of an empty tomb.
I'm so grateful that that's something we get to share.
That's something we get to speak out to a world that is lost and is looking.
You are right beside us, Lord Jesus.
Thank you for your Holy Spirit.
Father, thank you for being a father who loves us so much more than we can comprehend.
May we share that love throughout this week.
We love you.
Thank you for loving us first.
In Jesus' name, amen.
If you're here with Shep Day, you can go ahead and stand and exit.
It's a small.
Yeah.