More Than A List: Home with Mark Ordus

Yeah. Good morning, everybody. My name is Mark. I serve as director of students here at Ward Church, and we're so glad you're here. I love all play Sunday.

It's one of my favorite Sundays of the year because we get to worship as a family to bring everybody, all the classes, kids, middle school, young adults, everybody all together as one. And we've been going through this series here at War Church called More Than a List, and we've been kind of thinking about this idea of if God had a Christmas list for us, what would that look like? What would God's desire for us be this Christmas season? And it got me thinking about, one of the coolest Christmas gifts I ever received. The year was 2006, and I was a senior in college, and this new gaming system had just come out.

And it was called the Nintendo Wii. Oh. Thank you. Thank you. Yes.

This gaming system some some of you some of you kids here, you all don't know. This system, instead of just using a controller to play, you became the controller on the Nintendo Wii using controllers that looked something like these guys. With these controllers, my friends, you could golf, you could tennis, or you could baseball, You know? And so much more. And this system was so cool that when it came out, it was sold out everywhere.

So I remember talking with my dad, I was like, yeah, man, if if you could get me a Wii, that'd be cool, but you won't be able to get because, like, you're y'all remember this? Anybody who's, like, a millennial, you remember how hard it was to get a Wii? And, so, anyway, there I was, Christmas morning, and I opened a Nintendo Wii. Wow. I was so excited.

And I played this thing. My friends would come over, and we would play games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Y'all remember Rock Band? That was good. Right?

That was the one you could sing too. Yeah. And so my friends would come over, and we'd play these games, Mario Party, Mario Kart, Super Smash Brothers, all these games, all hours of the night. And everything was going great until my first son was born in 2009. His name is Micah.

He's playing the drums at Farmington today, so I can tell this story. He was about, when he was about, I don't know, nine months old maybe, Micah decided he wanted to play a game on the Nintendo Wii because he had seen daddy do it. But he wasn't really aware of what the discs looked like. So, anyway, we'll come back to that in a second. But one day, I go to play my Wii, and it's not working.

Like, I can't put a game in, and I thought, oh, maybe a game is stuck in it, but I couldn't get a game out. So then my friend TC was over, and we were gonna play some games on the Wii. I told him, I'm like, yeah, it's broken. I don't know what's happening. It won't work.

So then he picked it up, and he's closely examining it. And then he gives it a little jiggle like this. And we hear a little rattling as he gives the Wii a little jiggle. What we discovered was Micah, when he wanted to play a game, not knowing what the real games looked like, had inserted a bunch of small chips from a game called Who Knew? Who Knew?

And he kept pumping them in there, waiting for the video game to pop up. So we had, like, six or seven chips from this game. That was for the kids in the room. Thank you. Glad you're here.

Glad you're here. So, anyway, we were able to get all of the chips out of the gaming system, but it never really worked right again. Like, we we could play games that were, like, downloaded onto it or whatever, but the game never really worked. It was fixed. We got the chips out, but it never really worked the same ever again.

So I'm wondering, especially you guys who are kids in here, did you ever have a toy before that you wanted so bad, but then it broke somehow? And maybe your parents fixed it for you, but they couldn't really restore it to its former glory. That's what happened with my Wii, man. The problem was solved, but we couldn't fully restore it to what it did when we first got it. And it was basically at this point, it just started breaking down over time and it was broken and everything.

But we wanted the thing fixed, but we couldn't really fix it, and that was the huge bummer. So I thought about this in relationship to kind of how we tend to treat Jesus, in the holiday season, but really all year wrong, all year long. We look to Jesus whenever we want Him to come in and fix something. Like maybe it's someone we know or love who is sick or broken in some way, and we pray for God to fix them. Or maybe it's a broken relationship between husband and wife or brother and sister or kids and parents, and we want God to come in and fix it.

And the thing about God is He can totally do that. God is all powerful. He's in the business of fixing things. But the reality is, with Jesus, it's about much more than just fixing things. See, Jesus didn't just come to fix us, He came to restore us.

Just like I wanted my Wii fixed and it got fixed, it couldn't be restored, Jesus can and does fix things in our lives, but much more so, He desires to restore us. We're going to talk about what that means. So in our passage Miss Cindy just read for us, I want to go back to that last verse, just verse 21, if we could do that. And I want to read this verse that it says, says this, she will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. He will save His people from their sins.

So the first question we got to ask ourselves is, well, what is sin? You know, if Jesus came here, if He was born, and the surrounding his birth was so important that we named him Jesus because he'd save people from his sin, in its simplest form, sin is anything that separates us from God. Sin is anything we do other than what God would want us to do. God created us with an original purpose and plan for our lives, and every time we do something not in line with that plan for our lives, that's sin. And what sin does is it kind of drives a wedge between us and God.

Every time we do something other than what God desires us to do, it kind of drives a little wedge or it inserts another who knew chip in the we. You know what I mean? Every time we commit a sin, and we kind of drift farther and farther away from our relationship with God. And this was the place the world was in at the time right before Jesus was born. The people of Israel who were God's chosen people, they kept making these decisions.

And when they started, when the Kingdom of Israel started, they were basically hand in hand with God. And he said, just trust me, and you'll be with me, and I'll take care of you. But they kept doing things that drove wedges between them and God. They would start to practice other religions or practice with false gods or they would do things that God didn't want them to do. And every time they would, they would drift a little farther away.

And then eventually, they'd get to a point where they would come running back to God and say, God, we need you to fix this. We're hungry. We lost our homeland. We lost our capital city. We need you to come in and fix this.

God can do that, but he had a much bigger goal in mind than just fixing their relationships or fixing their issues. And he has a much bigger goal in mind for you than just fixing the broken things in your life. God's desire is to restore your relationship with Him. There's this story in Luke chapter 15 that Jesus told, not necessarily one we usually talk about on Christmas, but it's the story of the prodigal son. It's probably a story if you've ever been to church before, you've probably heard this story, and I'm just going to recap it for us.

But basically, what happens in this story is there's a man who has two sons, and as was custom in that day, he had an inheritance lined up for each of his sons, how they would divide his property when he passed away. And one day, one of his sons comes to him and says, you know all that money you have put aside for me when you die, I kind of just want that now. Like, just give it to me now. I never really could relate with this story because whenever I ask my dad about my inheritance, he says, I'm just going to inherit a mountain of debt that he has right now, which will be fun. That will be cool.

But he wants his money now. He's like, give it to me now. And his father does. He honors his wishes, his desires to get all of his inheritance right now. And then if you've heard the story, you know how it goes.

Right? He takes all this money, all this land, all this inheritance, and he goes and just waste it. He goes out partying with his friends. He does all these kinds of things, buys all the Nintendo Wiis, you know what I'm saying? Just waste all of the inheritance that his father had given him that probably could have set him up for a nice to to to start building his own wealth for his own family and his generational wealth.

So, he wastes all this money and then, things are broken. He's literally broke. He spent all the money he had. He doesn't have anywhere to sleep. He doesn't have anything to eat.

He's like, okay, I just I just need to go home and see if my dad can fix this for me. I I just need to see if I can go home and my dad, maybe he'll give me a job like one of our servants had. Maybe he'll let me sleep in servant's quarters. Maybe he'll be able to fix the current situation I'm in. He was hoping that his dad would step in and fix things, but watch what happens in Luke fifteen twenty two through 24.

So he comes home, and the father says to his servants, quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

So they began to celebrate. Now, the cool thing about this story is the son was broken, right? He had things in his life that needed to be fixed. And his dad, totally within his power, could have fixed those things for him. But his dad wanted something much more for him.

Not just for him to be fed, not just for him to have a place to stay, but he wanted to restore his relationship with his son. He wanted to restore his son's place in the household, in the family. Friends, we bring a lot of things to God we want him to fix, especially in this holiday season. I'm sure all of you have things you're praying for right now that you wish God would step in and fix. And God can do that.

God can do that. But He wants something so much more for you as well. He wants you to be restored. He doesn't just want to fix you, He wants to restore you. He wants to restore your place at God's table.

He wants to restore the relationship with you, his sons and daughters, that's been broken by sin. He wants to restore us. So in the midst of our darkness, in the midst of this dark world, God sends His Son, Jesus. And this is something we celebrate at Christmas time, of course, but the reason He sent His Son, Jesus, is to provide a way for us to be restored with our Father. Not just to be fixed or not just to fix situations we have.

Through the birth of Jesus Christ, we are restored to our Father. So I wonder, in the midst of this Christmas season, all the parties, all the things happening, I wonder what it would look like for you instead of just thinking of things you want God to fix. Like, still bring those requests, obviously, because God can and will. He is a healer. He's he's all powerful.

He's almighty. But I wonder what it would look like for you to focus on this season. What it would look like for God to come into your life and restore your place at his table. To restore your place in the family of God. Maybe some of you are thinking, Well, I don't have a place at that table.

Right? Like, I don't belong at God's table. I don't belong at really any table. The funny thing is every single person with breath in their lungs was created to be a member of god's family. So what would it look like for you this Christmas to focus on allowing god to restore your communion with him?

And come running back to him so he can put a robe on your back and a ring on your finger and kill the fattened calf? What would it look like for God to restore you this season? Can I pray for us? God, as we come upon this Christmas season and, we're preparing for so many things, so many lists, all the things we have, the presents we need to buy, the parties we need to go to, all the groceries we need to buy, all these different kinds of things, God, I pray in this season, 2025, Christmas, that you would refocus our attention back to you. We were created to be your sons and daughters.

Your desire is to restore that relationship with us, and that's why you sent your son Jesus. So God, help us to remember. Remember that Jesus has come so that we can be restored with you. We thank you, God, for sending your son. We thank you for loving us the way that only you can.

And we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.