The Gospel According to Pixar

Well right now why don't you take out your message notes if you got those when you came in. The Gospel According 2 is the logo on the top and as you're getting those out or getting another piece of paper if you're taking notes I just want to give you a little sneak preview of what is just around the corner here. Next weekend we start a verse by verse series in the really cool book of First Thessalonians in the Bible. We call the series Hope Agents because it's all about being an agent of hope in a world of despair if you need to be uplifted or if you want to learn how to uplift others and really change the world with hope man the world needs it and the Bible has this book all about it so check that out starting next weekend.

Now this morning we wrap up our series The Gospel According 2 and if you're taking notes jot this down right at the bottom of page one on those notes. The big idea of the message today is this when my faith is not just about something I know but about someone I know that changes absolutely everything because then my faith isn't just like truths or doctrines that I've memorized it but comes about somebody that I know loves me very very much and that transforms me so let's look at what the Bible says about that in 1st John 4:7–11. These are great verses they have one of the most famous phrases in the whole Bible that I'm sure you will recognize so read silently along with me as I read these out loud.

"Dear friends let us love one another for love comes from God everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God but anyone who does not love does not know God for God is love." This is how God showed his love among us he said his one and only son into the world that we might live through him this is real love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends since God so loved us we also ought to love one another and then skipping to verse 19 here's really the whole sermon in a sentence and I'd like us all to read this verse out loud together read it with gusto because this is huge we love because he first loved us amen all right I want you to shout it out in one word what would you say is the theme of this passage all right not all you got it not all you got it so I'm gonna ask you one more time what is the theme of this passage it is love.

In 1st John check this out in 1st John 4 John uses the Greek word for love 27 times in this chapter alone so I'm gonna talk to you about love today very appropriate topic for Mother's Day. Now in case you think oh okay I get it there's a lot more kids here because his Mother's Day and and René's gonna show apparently some clips from cartoons in this message so this is kind of Christianity light because it's about love nothing could be further from the truth because the kind of love that John is talking about here in this passage is world-changing love self-sacrificial love life-transforming love God empowered love.

Here's how deep this is the Apostle John says in 1st John 1 in his introduction he says he saw he was an eyewitness of this kind of love with his own eyes when Jesus Christ died on the cross and then he goes on to say that he was part of the very first community of Christian believers who changed the world with this kind of radical love because as people saw this astounding love that they had for one another because they were motivated by Christ's love for them people were drawn to them just like magnets and John says his vision for his readers and that includes you and me today 2,000 years later is that we would all show this same kind of radical supernatural God-charged love for each other today and that people would be drawn to us because of the unique quality of our love.

So this is a love of astounding depth and yet some of the best illustrations of this kind of love can be found in perhaps a very surprising place movies by Pixar and that's what we call the message the gospel according to Pixar today we've been showing how you can find parables that illustrate biblical truths in culture really in any culture all around us and as Christians we need to learn to think missionally so we can we can build bridges to timeless gospel truths by showing how they are illustrated in pop culture.

For example we've looked at the gospel according to Superman the gospel according to Lord of the Rings the gospel according to Lee Miserab and today the gospel according to Pixar and this is interesting Pixar movies many of them have been directed and or written by followers of Jesus Christ in fact most of them have been and they've been very blatant about the fact that they do try to subtly work in Christian parables into their movies like Andrew Stanton the director of Wally and Finding Nemo and Finding Dory he is a Christian and he was asked by a reviewer who said you know sometimes I see a little like maybe Christian parables in your movies is that true and why do you put those in there and he said well these things are very primal he said in my mind they're very much in the core of our storytelling because so much of the Bible is sort of built into our DNA as human beings.

Now he's not hitting people over ahead with a message he says hey just because you're strong in your faith doesn't mean you suddenly have to be dumb and obvious this watch this the same intoxicating seductive talents and cleverness that you see in what might be considered secular entertainment there's no reason that those things should not be used by Christians making movies and I totally repeat doctor who was the director of up and inside out and monsters Inc and monsters you he's also a believer and he says something similar he says not that we're trying to be sneaky or anything but you have more ability to affect people if you're not quite so blatant about it does that make sense well I think it does.

Now they're not saying that these are Christian movies of course but they are saying that their personal Christian values do come out in these films you might say well how so well this morning I want to very quickly look at just three of these films that they've created that are great illustrations of the three main points of 1st John especially 1st John 4 because these verses are really all about finding the life that you were meant to live the love that you long for the purpose that you you know you must be meant to live and how that transforms you when you find it and some of you are going yes I'm still looking for that love I'm still looking for that purpose how do I find it.

Well the first thing you have to do is admit that you need it admit you're looking for it number one I long for two main things in life love and purpose right we all of us long for love and purpose and these two deep longings in our DNA when you think about it are what every single Pixar movie I mean everyone ties into one or both of these deep primal longings like all of the Toy Story movies the toys long to be loved by a child because that's their purpose and as you'll see in this song from Toy Story 2 sung by one of the toys a doll named Jesse about how she feels unloved and purpose less because her owner has grown up.

Still away home. His unconditional love for her, relentless love for her, finally transforms her inner programming. Now in case you're going, you are making way too much of Wally, Andrew Stanton, who wrote and directed the movie says this, "The greatest commandment is to love one another." To me, that's the ultimate purpose of living. So that was the perfect goal for this robot, to learn the greatest commandment, to learn to love. And the theme that I was trying to tap into was that only irrational, unconditional love, the kind of love that just makes no sense defeats life's programming. That it takes a radical act of loving kindness to kick us out of our habits.

And you know what? That is an intentional illustration of these three truths in 1 John. Just three bullets, jot these down. First, love initiates, right? Even when there's no response. John says, "We love because he first loved us." God didn't wait for us to love him. He took the initiative before we ever responded. He relentlessly pursued us in so many wonderful ways. And love sacrifices, gives of itself completely. Verse eight says, "This is real love, not that we love God." We weren't being all sweet and loving, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin.

Now I wanna kinda zero in on the phrase atoning sacrifice because that's kinda Christian language. Maybe you're just here for the first time today and you're like, "I don't know, what does that even mean?" Let me just put you at ease because there's a lot of us Christians, we sing about atoning sacrifice and atonement and we read about it and we go, "That's atonement correct." And we go, "What does that mean? I don't know." And nobody ever explains it. So let me just explain it this way. Here's another cultural parable from kinda Santa Cruz culture that I found helpful in explaining this. Now the analogy isn't exact, but it's a parable.

A lot of us here in Santa Cruz are familiar with the term karma, right? We know about good karma and about bad karma, especially, let me focus in on the bad actions, the bad intentions, the bad thoughts. We know that when we do those, there's a sense of karmic debt to work off. And the reason the idea of karma has such resonance is you see it in the world. Every action provokes an equal, an opposite reaction. Every action has consequences. And so we all sense this in our souls or something like this. And the bad news is as hard as I try to do good works to create sort of good karma, I'm also constantly generating bad karma because I am not a perfect person. And so there are bad actions and there are bad intentions. So what am I gonna do about that? I've always got this karmic debt.

And then along comes this idea of God's grace. And it upends the whole idea of karma because grace means that God saw this treadmill that we were on with no way to work off that debt and he longs for us to have a guilt-free relationship with him and so Jesus took all of that bad karma, if you will, all of that sin debt and he took it onto himself and he paid your debt so you can be free to enjoy a completely lavish relationship with him. And he paid the debt in the most self-sacrificial way possible through death on a cross. And if I realize I have been loved that sacrificially, that extravagantly, that lavishly, then that kind of love is going to motivate me.

Love motivates, love initiates, love sacrifices, and then that kind of love motivates. John says, "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Like when Eve sees Wally, when I see how radically and unconditionally and relentlessly I'm loved, it changes me." And in fact, if you know the movie, I love this part, when the human beings on the spaceship see this robot and his sacrificial, relentless love for this other robot, you'll remember it starts changing then. And they start awakening to love and sacrifice again. And in fact, at the end of the movie, they return to Earth and they build a new society on planet Earth. What a parable for the ripple effects of understanding Christ's love for us.

Because ultimately it'll transform the whole planet. I mean, perfectly when Jesus Christ returns. But even now that ripple effect can begin to be felt as we bring kind of a preview of what the kingdom of heaven is like here in our lifetimes here on Earth. I could give you many, many examples of this around here at TLC, but let me just give you one. Last week, in addition to all the prep for the world's biggest garage sale, we had a so fest here at Twin Lakes Church. What is a so fest? Well, there are dozens and dozens of people here at TLC who got together and for four years they have been sewing dresses for our dress a girl outreach. They make dresses for girls in developing countries all over the world. And this last week they had a celebration. Our little group here in four years has sent out, are you ready for this? 11,000 dresses to 42 countries and over 4,000 Bibles have been given as a part of this amazing ministry.

Just the group here at Twin Lakes Church has done that in four years. Now, why in the world do they do this? I want you to listen to this. Barbara Taylor, the leader of our TLC dress a girl group, emailed me this last week. She said, "This is so good." She said, "I always say we think we are fashioning dresses, but we soon realize that it's God who's fashioning us to be more like him, more compassionate to the poor and the oppressed." She says, "A girl in many of these developing countries are told from the start that they have less value than a boy. A boy can be shabbily clothed, but he still has intrinsic value in many of these cultures. However, when a girl is clothed in rags, she's much more likely to be preyed upon, much more likely to be trafficked." And that's why we make our dresses sturdily and with a lot of love.

Village pastors have told us that predators overlook girls who may be watched over by an organization. And that's why we put dress a girl on a label right on the front of every dress we send out. Now you're gonna love this, and this is why I wanted to share this on Mother's Day. She says, "We also make a mama version of our girl dresses." Now this is something that just the TLC group of dress a girl does. It was their idea and I love this. She says, "We figure mamas are just little girls inside who've been told longer that they have no value." In fact, she says, "In this particular place in Africa, women have literally lower social value than a dog." So our ministry partners in Africa treated these women to a spa day of manicures and massages. And afterwards, they presented our dresses made here at TLC. Barbara says, "They feel much more like the beings God created them to be after such love, don't you think?"

And in this photo, they are showing off their colored nail polish. Along with their dresses. What a powerful example. And I think we oughta thank everybody in Dress a Girl again for a wonderful thing that they're doing. But when we know we are loved, we love, and then they know they're loved, and then they love, and it creates this ripple effect that God intends. And a lot of us look at that and go, "That's awesome!" But it's not just for people on the other side of the world. Right now, think of the people in your own world, your relationships. Do you initiate love? It's a safe bet that somebody in your world needs to know that they're loved this week. Somebody is lonely, somebody's hurt, somebody's insecure, somebody's tired, somebody's worried. Maybe somebody in your family, maybe somebody at work, maybe somebody across the street. Many of you are thinking of someone right now because God's putting them on your mind.

Well, that means this is the week for you to initiate. Now, maybe you're thinking, "But it may cost me something." Probably will. But they probably, they're not very nice. I've tried it before, they've given me the cold shoulder. "Well, you know what? They're probably not very nice because they're hurt." Well, you know what? I've tried this before and I've gotten no response. That's the point of this kind of love. The ancient Christian writer, Augustine, said, "There can be only two basic loves, the love of God, leading to forgetfulness of self, or the love of self leading to forgetfulness of God." And that's it. So which kind of love do you show in your life? Listen, we can only come by this kind of love supernaturally. It's not the kind of love we come by naturally. That's why John said, "Do you remember? Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. And when you've been born of God and know God, that's when you love." He's saying God's very nature is love. And so when I'm born of God, it becomes part of my DNA too.

And here's how badly God wants you to experience his love. It's point three. God longs to lead me home. And here's where our whole series comes full circle. Because here's the beautiful truth that we started with four weeks ago. God did not just leave me all alone on earth to figure it all out on my own. John says, "This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. He came looking for you." Jesus told so many parables about this, didn't he? And there's another parable about it and something you've probably seen in the last few years. You know, the same Christian who made WALL-E also made Finding Nemo, which is like a gigantic parable. Because in that movie, a fish named Marlin is a father relentlessly seeking his lost son. And soon the whole ocean hears the story.

Anyway, he swam out in the open water to this boat and when he was out there, these divers appeared and I tried to stop them, but the boat was too fast. So we swam out in the ocean to follow him. He couldn't stop him. And then Nemo's dad, he jumped out to the ocean and they bumped into three. He even roasts his sharks. He scares away the sharks by blowing him up. Golly, that's amazing. And then dives thousands of feet straight down into the dock. It's like wicked dock down there. You can't see a thing. Let's go and bump. And the only thing I can see down there. They're making this big horrible creature with razor-sharp teeth. Nice penny, old man. And sending us to blast his way out. He's been in a fishing pit. Searching the ocean for days. On the east Australian current. He may be on his way here right now. That should have been a silly habit in a matter of days. I mean, it sounds like this guy's gonna stop it. Nothing till he finds his son. Sure hope he makes it.

There's one dedicated father of yours, me. Hey, hey, hey, hey. What the? Well, that's one way to pull a tooth. Darn kids. Well, good thing I pulled the right way. Hey, hey, hey. Oh, Nigel, you just missed an extraction. Ooh, has he loosened the periodontal ligament of the elevator yet? What am I talking about? Nemo, where's Nemo? I've gotta speak with him. What, what is it? Your dad's been fighting the entire ocean looking for you. My father? Really? Really? Oh yeah, he's traveled hundreds of miles. He's been battling sharks and jellyfish. Sharks? That can't be him. Are you sure? What was his name? I heard some sort of sport fish or something. Tuna, trout. Marlin? That's it, Marlin, the little clown fish from the reef. It's my dad, he took on a shark. I heard he took on three. Three? Three. Three sharks? There's gonna be 4,800 teeth. You see kid, after you were taken by diver Dan over there, your dad followed the boat you were on like a maniac. Really? He's swimming and he's swimming and he's giving it all this gop. And then three gigantic sharks capture him and he blows him up. And then dive starts to spin, where he gets chased by a monster with huge teeth. He ties the speed with the rock. Once he gets there, a lord, he gets to battle an entire jellyfish forest. But now he's riding with a bunch of sea turtles and he's just straight.

Well, guess what? I am here to tell you the same thing that was said of him can be said of you. Because your father has traveled to great lengths looking for you. He traveled thousands and thousands of miles down from heaven to earth, down into our darkness, as one of the characters said, "Wicked dark down there." Well, it was wicked dark down here. And he went through much evil and much opposition on his mission to seek and save you, his beloved child. Now some of you are thinking, that's not my father. My father's not like that. Maybe not your biological father. You may have had little or no relationship with your biological dad or mom. And maybe days like Mother's Day or Father's Day are kind of tough for you because of that. But I'm here to tell you that no matter what happened in your past, your loving Heavenly Father is not that kind of parent. He is the kind of father you've been longing for your whole life.

You know what Jesus said? He said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost like you and like me." And you know what else? He is leaving clues, the kind of clues we've been talking about in this series, those redemptive analogies everywhere to lead you home. Remember how we started this series? We looked at how when the Apostle Paul spoke to pagan Greek and Roman audiences who'd never received the Bible, they'd never really heard the Bible. And he was saying, "But I know you long to worship this God and this God has been leaving clues for you that lead to him." He says to him, he says to them, "He has not left himself without a witness. He has shown you kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons. He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." And in Acts 17 to another pagan audience, he says, "God did this so that people would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him though he is not far from any one of us." And then he quotes Greek pagan poets, "For in him we live and move and have our being as some of your own poets have said, for we are his offspring."

In other words, God leaves a trail that leads to him all around us in every culture, to every person, on the whole planet, and all throughout time. Now I'm not saying all roads lead to heaven because Christianity doesn't teach that. In fact, I would say no religion teaches that, not really, because some paths don't lead anywhere and some paths lead only to evil and dark places. What I am saying is that everywhere you go and any time you ever existed, God has left clues to lead people home, to lead people to Jesus and into a faith-based, grace-based relationship with him. You say, "What are you talking about?" Well, let me close with one final parable. In the follow-up to Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, that little fish Dory is lost and alone, in fact, right here in the Monterey Bay in the movie. Now when she was just a little fish growing up in the aquarium, she was taught by her mom and dad to follow a seashell path that they laid in their little tank because the seashells led home.

Well, years later, as a grown-up lost fish in the open ocean still searching for her parents, here's what happens. Hello, I'm-- Dory! Oh, my baby, let me look at you. I'm never letting you go again. I'm just a girl, you're a man. It's you. Yes, it's really you. I'm so glad you're actually here. Yes, I am. And dad, so are you. Right here, health cake. I'm so sorry. Oh, honey. What? Oh, honey, no, no, no, health cake. I know I've got a problem. I know I'm, and I'm so sorry, and all this time I wouldn't have fixed it, and I can't, and I try, I try, but my thoughts, they leave my head, and my ideas change, and I've forgotten you, and I'm so sorry. Dory, Dory, Dory, don't you dare be sorry. Look, look what you did.

What? You found us. That's right, you found us. Honey, honey, why do you think we stayed 20 years all these years? Because we believed one day, you'd find us again. Exactly. But I thought you were gone, honey. We went into quarantine to look for you, but you weren't there. And we knew you must have gotten out through the pipes. Through the pipes, that's right, sweetie, and so we did too. And we stayed in this spot for you ever since. Because we thought you might come back. So every day we go out and lay out shells. Now let's freeze just on that frame. Because what a great metaphor for what God does for you and for me and for everybody who's ever lived.

You know, I don't know why you're here today. Maybe you came to church to help support a family that's dedicating their baby. Or maybe you came to encourage your mom because your mom's love has been a great example to you. Or maybe you heard about the series at Easter. I know some people just started coming to church then and they heard, "Oh, the gospel according to Pixar. That sounds great." I don't know why you're here, but listen. From God's perspective, all seashell paths that he left to leave you home. So the question is this, and it's a question only you can respond to, only we as individuals can respond to. Will I follow the path that God is laying for me all the way home? To him. Because when you follow it all the way home, you will find your heavenly Father wanting to love you and embrace you and throw you a party with all the angels of heaven. Because he wants more than anything in the universe to have a relationship with you. That's how extravagant his love is. And that's what we come together to rejoice in.

So let's in prayer speak to that loving God together right now. Would you bow your heads and your hearts with me? Dear Lord, thank you for leading us to you. And first I pray that we would all realize just deep down how much we're loved, extravagantly loved, and then love others the same way. And Lord, I believe that maybe in this very moment there might be people who feel like praying, "God, I don't understand it all, but I believe you led me here through the tough times and the good times. So lead me all the way home to you. God, I receive you today as my Lord and as my Savior, inspired by the extravagant love that Jesus showed on the cross, taking my debt. So God, I am running into your arms. In Jesus' name, amen.