Teachings: Recent Episodes
Restoration Covenant Church
Romans 12:1-2
12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
“In the 20th century (generally speaking), protestant Christians set out to make America Christian and ended up making Christianity American.”
Stanley Hauerwas
“A disciple is anyone whose ultimate goal is to live as Jesus would live if he were in their place.”
Dallas Willard
Jesus brought about a reformation by telling a subversive, alternative story. He told a story that is more than science, more than history, more than philosophy, more than anthropology, and more than morality. A story that not only happened once, but is happening still. And you and I are invited into that!
NT Wright
Philippians 2:1-11, John 13:34-35; 15:12-13, 1 John 4:20, John 1:14, Revelation 2:1-4
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Love God Well
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Love Each Other Well
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Love This World Well
John 13:34-35
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 15:12-13
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
1 John 4:20
20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
John 1:14
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
The Message
“He had the right attitude. He chewed gum, looked arrogant and flipped the bird to the guards—he did everything the prisoners wanted to do. He was a mean mother from the South who was there because he loved us. When he walked away, everyone in that place had become a Johnny Cash fan.”
Merl Haggard
Things are different now. The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.
Philippians 2 :5-8
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
“The word describes something that happens within an existing relationship, whether between two human beings or between God and man. In human relationships, hesed implies loving our neighbor, not merely in terms of warm emotional feelings but in acts of love and service that we owe to the other person simply because he is part of the covenant community.” Revelation 2:1-4
Revelation 2:1-4
2 “To the angel[a] of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.
As you look at the incarnate son of God dying on the cross the most powerful thought you should think is: this is the true meaning of who God is. He is the God of self-giving love.
NT Wright
Following Jesus with Our Whole Selves
Forgiveness: Absorbing the Pain
February 14th, 2021
Matthew 18:21-35, Luke 23:32-34, Ephesians 4:30-5:2
IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR A CHRISTIAN TO BE SPIRITUALLY MATURE WHILE REMAINING EMOTIONALLY IMMATURE.
Peter Scazzero
Matthew 18:21-35
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. 23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[h] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. 28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[i] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. 29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ 30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Luke 23:32-34
32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”[c] And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
Ephesians 4:30-5:2
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. 1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
The personal act to release the one who sinned against me from my personal right to collect on the moral debt (to pay them back) for their offense, giving it over to God for His justice and mercy.
Instead of giving them back the pain they gave me, I absorb the pain into myself with God’s help.
“Any pain or tension we do not transform we will transmit. In the face of jealousy, anger, bitterness, and hatred we are to be like water purifiers; holding the toxins inside of us and giving back only the pure water.”
Ronald Rolheiser – Sacred Fire
“As we age, we can begin to trim down our spiritual vocabulary and eventually we can get it down to just three words: forgive, forgive, forgive. The major task psychologically and spiritually for the second half of our lives is to forgive. We need to forgive those who have hurt us, forgive ourselves for our own failings, forgive life for not being fully fair, and forgive God for seemingly being so indifferent to our wounds. We need to do that before we die because ultimately there is only one moral imperative, not to die an angry bitter person but to die with a warm heart.”
Ronald Rolheiser – Sacred Fire
February 7th, 2021
Luke 7:36-50, Matthew 6:14-15
“Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive.”
C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity
Luke 7:36-5036 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[c] and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Matthew 6:14-15
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
1. Forgiveness is Not Forgetting
“In Scripture we learn that “remember” means to bring into active memory so that attitude and action are impacted. Like God, we do not “not remember” the sin, so it does not influence future relationship. Like God, we do not erase the fact of the sin from knowledge. In case of God, that would contradict His omniscience.”
2. Forgiveness is Not a Feeling
3. Forgiveness is not saying that something is not a sin
4. Forgiveness is not having to allow someone who is toxic back into your life!
5. Forgiveness is rarely a one-time event!
The personal act to release the one who sinned against me from my personal right to collect on the moral debt (to pay them back) for their offense, giving it over to God for His justice and mercy.
1. We return to God the right to take care of Justice.
2. Forgiveness means that we will determine and want to do good not evil!
3. See forgiveness as an unmerited gift
4. Forgiveness means that we will absorb pain into our lives…
Genesis 3:1-7, John 1:19-23; 29-39; 3:22-30
Genesis 3:1-7
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LordGod had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
God Has not made a bad tree. He has simply made a tree. And there is nothing intrinsic about the tree that is different in any way from the other trees. Rather, God has simply confronted man with a choice. He could have just as well said, “Don’t cross this stream; don’t climb this mountain.” He is saying, “Believe me and stand in your place as a creature, not as one who is autonomous. Believe me and love me as a creature to his Creator, and all will be well. This is the place for which I have made you.”
Francis Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time
Frozen: Let it Go
It's time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
I'm free
John 1:19-23; 29-39
19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders[c] in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.
20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John replied in the words of Isaiah (40) the prophet, “I am a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”[d]
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”[f]
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
John 3:22-30
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized.24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less.”[h]
27 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven.
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I Am Not the Messiah, 19-20 2.
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I Am Not Elijah, 21a
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I Am Not the Prophet, 21b
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I Am a Voice (for the Lord), 23
- I Am a Baptizer (in Water), 25-26
- I Am Unworthy (to Untie His Sandals), 27-28
30 He must become greater; I must become less.”[h]
His Identity
His Calling
His Limitations
1. His Knew His Identity
2. He Knew His Calling
3. He Knew His Limitations
“Emotionally healthy people understand the limits God has given them. They joyfully receive the one, two, seven or ten talents God has so graciously distributed. As a result, they are not frenzied and covetous trying to live a life that God never intended. They are marked by contentment and joy.”
Peter Scazzaro
“Maturity in life is when somebody is living within their God given limits!”
Genesis 12:1-5; 10-20; 20:1-3; 26:1-7; 27:18-25; 37:2-4; 37:31-36, Exodus 20:1-6
Genesis 12:1-5; 10-20
12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.
12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”
14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. 15 And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
17 But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20 Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.
Genesis 20:1-3
20 Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, 2 and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. Sound familiar?
3 But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”
Genesis 26:1-7
26 Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring[a] all nations on earth will be blessed,[b] 5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” 6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”
Genesis 27:18-25
18 He went to his father and said, “My father.”
“Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”
19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”
20 Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”
“The Lord your God gave me success,” he replied.
21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.”
22 Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him.
24 “Are you really my son Esau?” he asked.
“I am,” he replied.
25 Then he said, “My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.”
Genesis 37:2-4; 31-36
2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line.
Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate[a] robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
31 Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”
33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”
34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.
36 Meanwhile, the Midianites[c] sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
Exodus 20:1-6
20 And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
1. Generational Sin is a Real Thing
2. Sin Has Consequences that Last for Generations
3. On the Scale of God’s Mercy and Judgement, Mercy Wins Every Time
“To become a Christian and to be adopted into God’s family with the new name of “Christian” does not erase the past. God does not give us amnesia or do emergency emotional/spiritual reconstructive surgery. God does forgive the past, but he does not erase it. We are given a new start, but we still come in as babies drinking milk and are expected to die daily to the parts of our lives that do not honor God and follow Jesus.”
Peter Scazzero
"Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it”
Winston Churchill
“The critical factor that most significantly determines my new identity as a Christian is not blood of my biological family but the blood of Jesus. We are given a new name (Christian), a new inheritance (freedom, glory, hope, resources a hundred-fold), and new power (the Holy Spirit), to live in this new life. We become partakers in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), able to enjoy the absolute security and stability, freedom, intimacy, and confidence in prayer (Luke 11:5-13) of children in God’s family. There exists a new dynamic in the life inside me, the life of Jesus.”
Peter Scazzero
When I was young I set out to change the world. When I grew older, I perceived that this was too ambitious so I set out to change my state. This, too, I realized as I grew older was too ambitious, so I set out to change my town. The I realized I could not even do this, I tried to change my family. Now as an old man, I know that I should have started by changing myself. If I had started with myself, maybe then I would have succeeded in changing my family, the town, or even the state… and who knows maybe even the world.
Genesis 12:1-5; 10-20; 20:1-3; 26:1-7; 27:18-25; 37:2-4; 37:31-36, Exodus 20:1-6
Genesis 12:1-5; 10-20
12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.
12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”
14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. 15 And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
17 But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20 Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.
Genesis 20:1-3
20 Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, 2 and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her. Sound familiar?
3 But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”
Genesis 26:1-7
26 Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring[a] all nations on earth will be blessed,[b] 5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” 6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”
Genesis 27:18-25
18 He went to his father and said, “My father.”
“Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”
19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”
20 Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”
“The Lord your God gave me success,” he replied.
21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.”
22 Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him.
24 “Are you really my son Esau?” he asked.
“I am,” he replied.
25 Then he said, “My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.”
Genesis 37:2-4; 31-36
2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line.
Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate[a] robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
31 Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”
33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”
34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.
36 Meanwhile, the Midianites[c] sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
Exodus 20:1-6
20 And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
1. Generational Sin is a Real Thing
2. Sin Has Consequences that Last for Generations
3. On the Scale of God’s Mercy and Judgement, Mercy Wins Every Time
“To become a Christian and to be adopted into God’s family with the new name of “Christian” does not erase the past. God does not give us amnesia or do emergency emotional/spiritual reconstructive surgery. God does forgive the past, but he does not erase it. We are given a new start, but we still come in as babies drinking milk and are expected to die daily to the parts of our lives that do not honor God and follow Jesus.”
Peter Scazzero
"Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it”
Winston Churchill
“The critical factor that most significantly determines my new identity as a Christian is not blood of my biological family but the blood of Jesus. We are given a new name (Christian), a new inheritance (freedom, glory, hope, resources a hundred-fold), and new power (the Holy Spirit), to live in this new life. We become partakers in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), able to enjoy the absolute security and stability, freedom, intimacy, and confidence in prayer (Luke 11:5-13) of children in God’s family. There exists a new dynamic in the life inside me, the life of Jesus.”
Peter Scazzero
When I was young I set out to change the world. When I grew older, I perceived that this was too ambitious so I set out to change my state. This, too, I realized as I grew older was too ambitious, so I set out to change my town. The I realized I could not even do this, I tried to change my family. Now as an old man, I know that I should have started by changing myself. If I had started with myself, maybe then I would have succeeded in changing my family, the town, or even the state… and who knows maybe even the world.
Jeremiah 17:9, John 4:3-30
"noverim me noverim te"
“Let me know myself, let me know you.”
Augustine – Confessions
-
You Have A Story
-
You Are A Whole Person
Social, Intellectual, Spiritual, Physical, and Emotional
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
“The reason we don’t want to feel is that feeling exposes the tragedy of our world and the darkness of our hearts. The route to facing what we feel is not by valuing the darkness of what we feel, but by valuing the deep structure of why we don’t want to feel. Once we face why feeling is so hard, then we can move beyond what we feel to the deeper energy within is that keeps us from grappling honestly with our emotions. Then we will not only feel more deeply, but more importantly, we will feel our feelings in a way that exposes our struggles with God.”
Tremper Longman and Dan Allender, The Cry of the Soul
Johari Window Graphic
- God is An Emotional Being
contempt, despise, weep, bewail, weeping, dread, rejoice, rejoicing, abhor, loathe, tears, murmur, growl, roar, be boisterous, be indignant, indignation, raging, rage, love, pity, look upon with compassion, burning anger, rage, compassion, delight in, delight, pleasure, burn, be kindled, anger, be attached to, love, howl, make a howling, be vexed, indignant, angry, provoke to anger, vex, vexation, comfort, be sorry, console, rue, repent of, ease oneself, infuriated, overflow, arrogance, fury, exult, vexed in his heart, jealous, ardour, zeal, jealousy, be wrath, and make wrathful
- You an I Are Made in the Image of God
The personality that emerges from the Gospels differs radically from the image of Jesus I grew up with, an image I now recognize in some of the older Hollywood films about Jesus. In those films, Jesus recites his lines evenly and without emotion. He strides through life as the one calm character among a cast of flustered extras. Nothing rattles him. He dispenses wisdom in flat, measured tones. He is, in short, the Prozac Jesus. In contrast, the Gospels present a man who has such charisma that people will sit three days straight, without food, just to hear his riveting words. He seems excitable, impulsively "moved with compassion" or "filled with pity." The Gospels reveal a range of Jesus' emotional responses: sudden sympathy for a person with leprosy, exuberance over his disciples' successes, a blast of anger at coldhearted legalists, grief over an unreceptive city, and then those awful cries of anguish in Gethsemane and on the cross. He had nearly inexhaustible patience with individuals but no patience at all with institutions and injustice.
Philip Yancy – The Jesus I Never Knew
John 4:3-30
3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
“Ignoring our emotions is turning our back on reality; listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where we meet God.”
Tremper Longman and Dan Allender, Bold Love
Emotional health and spiritual maturity are inseparable. It is not possible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.”
Peter Scazzero – Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
Matthew 26:36-42, Luke 10:21, John 2:13-17, John 11:32-36
Mark 6:30-34
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Luke 10:21
21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
Luke 12:49-50
49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!
John 2:13-17
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”[c]
John 11:32-36
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
“But an authentic relationship with Christ also takes us into the depths — the shadows, the strongholds and the darkness deep within our own souls that must be purged. Surrendering to this inward and downward journey is difficult and painful.”
Dallas Willard
Emotional moments and emotional understanding often lead us to the greatest clarity in our thinking and understanding. These are the lightbulb moments. They capture the truth in a snapshot, as no amount of rational thinking can.
Matthew Elliott
Eastern Spirituality = Detach
Western Spirituality = Fake It
Secularism = Escape it
The common denominator is to run away from emotional pain
1. He Gives God His Feelings
2. Jesus Gives God His Desires
3. He Gives God His Trust
“Ignoring our emotions is turning our back on reality; listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where we meet God … Emotions are the language of the soul. They are the cry that gives the heart a voice.”
Tremper Longman and Dan Allender, Bold Love
Philippians 4:21-23; 1:1-2; 1:13
21 Greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. 22 All God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.
23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
1:1-2
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons[a]: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1:13
13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard[c] and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.
The lavish, opulent, untamed, raw, scandalous blessing of God! Unearned, undeserved, illogical, and disproportionate… Poured out through Christ over every facet of your life, and the living presence of the Creator God deep inside of you, poured out through the Holy Spirit with limitless power to live out, and up to, God’s calling on your life!
Philippians 4:14-20; 11-13; 1:3-7, 2 Corinthians 8:1-5
11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early daysof your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; 16 for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need. 17 Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. 18 I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.19 And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.
20 To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.2 Corinthians 8:1-5
8 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. 5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.
Philippians 4:10-13, Matthew 6:24, Proverbs 30:7-9
1. Contentment is Something We Learn
2. Contentment is Not Dependent on Our Circumstances
When I get __________ then I will be content and happy.
3. Contentment is a Struggle in Times of Want or in Plenty
Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.”
“Mammon means possessions or property. Today we might legitimately translate Mammon as things, money, gain, or success. The god Mammon is left with its pagan name in the Greek text and in most translations in order to remind readers that Mammon is a spiritual force who works with tremendous attracting power to draw us into its orbit and out from under the service of Christ.”
Dale Bruner
“For untradeable things that cannot be exchanged (such as friendship), there is no way to trade them or swap them (you cannot buy a true friend or inner peace). But you can buy things that seem to be around it: proxies. You can buy a dinner in a restaurant for your friends, but there is no way you can buy true friends by doing so; or you can buy a cabin in the mountains and try to find peace there, but you cannot buy peace itself. Ultimately, advertising functions on this principle: They show you something that cannot be traded (a happy family at breakfast, an escape, or beauty) and offer you a tradable proxy (some kind of breakfast cereal, a mountain cabin, or shampoo). And even though we know this is an illusion and that actors and extras play in ads, we still start to desire a better pillow (mine is responsible for my troubled sleep), new yogurts and cereals (the happy family at breakfast), and shampoo (even if the model in the ad has probably never used the particular brand).”
Tomas Sedlacek; Economics of Good and Evil
Son of Agor Proverbs 30:7-9
“Two things I ask of you, Lord;
do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord? ’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.”
“He is richest who is content with the least for contentment is the wealth of nature.”
Socrates
“The happy man is content with his present lot, no matter what it is, and is reconciled to his circumstances.”
Seneca
Philippians 4:8-9; 6-7, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
“The command in verse 8, to think about all the wonderful and lovely things listed here, runs directly opposite to the habits of mind instilled by modern media. Read the newspapers: their stock-in-trade is anything that is untrue, unholy, unjust, impure, ugly, of ill repute, vicious, and blameworthy. Is that a true representation of God’s good and beautiful world?
How are you going to celebrate the goodness of the creator if you feed your mind only on the place in the world which humans have made ugly? How are you going to take steps to fill your mind instead with all the things that God has given us to be legitimately pleased with, and to enjoy and celebrate?
N.T. Wright
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Philippians 4:1-3; 1:27
1:27 “Whatever happens, live as Citizens of the Gospel of the King!”
“Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit,[e] striving together as one for the faith of the gospel”
1. Paul Presupposes that You Are in Real, True Community
2. Paul Presupposes that Your Community is a Living Display of the Gospel
“And since the gospel does not come as a disembodied message, but as the message of a community which claims to live by it and which invites others to adhere to it, the community's life must be so ordered that it "makes sense" to those who are so invited.”
Lesslie Newbigin
“In contrast to the long period in which the plausibility structure of European society was shaped by the biblical tradition, and in which one could be a Christian without conscious decision because the existence of God was among the self-evident truths, we are now in a situation where we have to take personal responsibility for our beliefs.”
Lesslie Newbigin
Philippians 3:1-11, Matthew 13:44
“With regard to eternal salvation, rather than speaking of belief, trust, or faith in Jesus, we should speak instead of fidelity to Jesus as cosmic Lord or allegiance to Jesus the king.”
Matthew W. Bates
Philippians 2:14-18, Exodus 16:1-3; 6-12; 17:1-4, Deuteronomy 32:1-7, Daniel 12:1b-3, Colossians 4:5-6, Ephesians 4:29
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing,15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”[c] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
1. Exodus 16:1-3; 6-12
2. Deuteronomy 32:1-7
3. Daniel 12:1b-3
Colossians 4:5-6
Ephesians 4:29
1. Don’t Grumble and Argue
2. As you Hold Firmly to the Word of Life
“Here, then, is the message of Easter, or at least the beginning of that message. The resurrection of Jesus doesn’t mean, “It’s all right. We’re going to heaven now.” No, the life of heaven has been born on this earth. It doesn’t mean, “So there is a life after death.” Well, there is, but Easter says much, much more than that. It speaks of a life that is neither ghostly nor unreal, but solid and definite and practical. The Easter stories come at the end of the four gospels, but they are not about an “end.” They are about a beginning. The beginning of God’s new world. The beginning of the kingdom. God is now in charge, on earth as in heaven. And God’s “being-in-charge” is focused on Jesus himself being king and Lord. The title on the cross was true after all. The resurrection proves it.”
N.T. Wright, Simply Jesus
“Live as citizens of the Gospel of the king”
Philippians 2:12-13, Ephesians 2:8-10
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
“Whatever happens, live as citizens of the gospel of the King”
“A long obedience in the same direction.” Eugene Peterson
Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
“Jesus is a teacher who doesn’t just inform our intellect but forms our very loves. He isn’t content to simply deposit new ideas into your mind; he is after nothing less than your wants, your loves, your longings.”
James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love
“Salvation here, is not in personal terms, “but in regard to the corporate life of the Philippian church. The readers are being encouraged to concentrate upon reforming their church life, ‘working at’ this matter until the spiritual health of the community, diseased by strife and bad feeling, is restored.”
Welcome to the family, now get to work!
Philippians 2:5-11, John 10:17-18
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
“These seven verses have received more attention from NT scholars and Christian theologians than any other passage in Philippians and easily qualify for inclusion among the most hotly debated passages of the Bible.”
Craig Blomberg
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
“God in Jesus became human and laid down the God card.”
“To bind a Roman citizen is an outrage; to scourge him a crime; it almost amounts to parricide to put him to death; how shall I describe crucifixion? No adequate word can be found to represent so execrable an enormity.”
Cicero from Against Verres
Cursus Honorum “Course of Honer” “Ladder of Offices”
1. This is a Hymn about God!
“The decision to become human, and to go all the way along the road of obedience, obedience to the divine plan of salvation, yes, all the way to the cross – this decision was not a decision to stop being divine. It was a decision about what it really meant to be divine… his progression through incarnation to death must be seen, not as something which required him as it were to stop being God for a while, but as a perfect self-expression of the true God.”
N.T. Wright
1. This is a Hymn about US!
Philippians 1:12-18, 1 Corinthians 4:9-13, 2 Corinthians 6:4-10, Romans 8:28
1 Corinthians 4:9-13
2 Corinthians 6:4-10
“At some point in this generation, "Take up your cross and follow me" changed into, "Come to Jesus and he'll make your life better.”
E. Randolph Richards, Misreading Scripture through Western Eyes
13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard[c] and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.
14 And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
No matter what happens, all of you live as Citizens of the Gospel of the King
15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16 The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former preach the King out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.
18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
The Redemptive Edge
The God we worship is able to take evil, cut into it with redemption and dig out good!
1. Some People Get Angry at God
2. God is in Control
The Gospel hope is not that everything that happens to you is the will of God!
The Gospel hope is that no matter what happens to you, God is with you!
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good…
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
“What has happened to me”
The Redemptive Edge: How has God cut into that?
Because of _________ I rejoice!
Philippians 1:3-11
“Western societies are, by and large, individualistic societies. The most important entity in an individualistic culture is the individual person. This misreading of Scripture arises from combining our individualism with a more subtle, deeply hidden and deeply rooted aspect of our Western worldview: we still think the universe centers around us.”
E. Randolph Richards,Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes
“If we're not careful, our individualistic assumptions about church can lead us to think of the church as something like a health club. We're members because we believe in the mission statement and want to be a part of the action. As long as the church provides the services I want, I'll stick around. But when I no longer approve of the vision, or am no longer "being fed," I'm out the door. This is not biblical Christianity. Scripture is clear that when we become Christians, we become-permanently and spiritually-a part of the church. We become part of the family of God, with all the responsibilities and expectations that word connotes in the non-Western world.”
E. Randolph Richards, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes
The lavish, opulent, untamed, raw, scandalous blessing of God! Unearned, undeserved, illogical, and disproportionate… Poured out through Christ over every facet of your life, and the living presence of the Creator God deep inside of you, poured out through the Holy Spirit with limitless power to live out, and up to, God’s calling on your life!
Ending Prayer:
9 And this is my prayer: that our love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that we may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of King Jesus, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:3-6
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of King Jesus.
The Word: Began
The Word: Good
The Word: Completion
“I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist; Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!”
Leslie Newbigin
Philippians 1:27-30, Acts 17:7
Philippians 1:27-30
27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit,[e] striving together as one for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
“Live as citizens of the gospel of the King”
4 pieces of Backgrounds
“Empire, Caesar, Gospel and Colony”
Acts 17:7 “They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.”
I am perfectly comfortable with what people normally mean when they say ‘the gospel.’ I just don’t think it is what Paul means. In other words, I am not denying that the usual meanings are things that people ought to say, to preach about, to believe. I simply wouldn’t use the word ‘gospel’ to denote those things.”
N.T. Wright
The gospel is the royal announcement that Jesus is Lord.
Or put another way…
The good news that the crucified Messiah is the risen Lord of the universe.
Living out the Gospel happens in community
Living out the gospel is hard
What Gospel do you believe?
What Lord do you worship?
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, Matthew 6:5; 5:34-35, Isaiah 29:13, Hebrews 10:19-25, Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Ecclesiastes 2:1-11
“Compassion is allowing someone else’s heart to walk around in your chest”.
Two Assumptions the Teacher has:
1. I can’t find it here… then I have to go there!
2. If I find it, he will be full and content.
“We are unhappy and we are generally unhappy about being unhappy, but it’s fine.”
Jonathon Haidt - The Happiness Hypothesis
“[You are] a being whose wants make no sense, don’t harmonize, whose desires deep down are discordantly arranged, so that you truly want to possess and you truly want not to at the very same time. You’re equipped, you realize, more for farce (or even tragedy) than happy endings.”
Francis Spufford - Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense
“The best anyone can do is to reach a balance of discontents.”
Sigmund Freud
1. Pursue it!
2. Become a Cynic
3. Become Moralistic…
So how do we move forward?
Objects must be sacramental
Relationships must be covenantal
“He wants us to see how far from Eden we have come. Once it was enough for a man and a woman to have God and the good gifts that God gave, even if it meant that there was a tree and a fruit that existed but not for them. Now, even though we are surrounded by opportunities to laugh, or drink, or work, or make money, none of it is enough, we are not satisfied, and death stomps on all of it. Even our marvelous moments of good work and good intimacy will one day become only a memory and then be gone forever in the world. Death did this to us. We did this to us. God let it be. He will have to take care of death and all that has flown from it. In time the promised One will come. A cross will come. A tomb will empty. Death will die.”
Zack Eswine – Recovering Eden
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18, 2:12-17
Nick Blurb: "In order to get to the truth, we have to be willing to take a look at the things we do not like."
“As a reader you will have to start off with meaninglessness and wade through twelve chapters of tension, poetry, proverbs, unanswered questions, unsettling speech, and intimate language before arriving at the point he wants to make. Because of this approach, in order to get to the truth he wants us to see, we have to be willing to take a look at the things we do not like.”
Zack Eswine
“Wisdom teaches us that tears, at their best, pay tribute to something lost that was once cherished and it was wise to cherish it.”
Zach Eswine
“Contrary to what some people tell us, sadness is neither a sign of laziness nor a sin; neither negative thinking nor weakness. On the contrary, when we find ourselves impatient with sadness, we reveal our preference for folly, our resistance to wisdom, and our disregard for depth and proportion.”
Charles Spurgeon
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
“Ecclesiastes is a kind of back door that allows followers of Jesus to have the sad and skeptical thoughts that they would never allow to enter the front door of their faith.”
Norbert Lohfink
“The author wrote the book to suggest with such fullness as he judged adequate, the emptiness of this life, with the ultimate objective, to be sure, of making us yearn for another kind of life which is no unsubstantial shadow under the sun but a substantial reality under the sun’s Creator.”
Augustine
“The book of Ecclesiastes is one of the most important possessions of the church since it compels us to continually evaluate and correct our understanding of God and our teaching about God in the light of the whole of biblical revelation. The Teacher addresses people whose life is bounded by the horizons of this world; he meets them on their own ground, and proceeds to convict them of its inherent vanity.”
G.S. Hendry
Mark 3:20-35; 1:1, Colossians 1:13; 2:13-15(Message)
“The parable may be taken as Jesus’ mission statement in Mark, urging us to interpret the rest of the narrative guided by this image. The whole Gospel is a story about the reign of God coming to displace another reign, and that other one will not relinquish its power without a fight.”
N.T. Wright
“Enemy-occupied territory---that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.”
C.S. Lewis
Restoration Definition: “The return to its former owner place or condition.”
Mark 3:7-19, John 15:16, 1 Corinthians 1:26-29
Mark 3:7-12
7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. 8 When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. 9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. 10 For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. 11 Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.
Map
John 15:16
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
Mark 3:13-19
13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.14 He appointed twelve[a] that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach15 and to have authority to drive out demons. 16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), 17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
1. Your number one priority is to “be with him”
2. To Be Sent Out
“Proclaiming the gospel to a lost world cannot be just another activity to add to the church’s crowded agenda. It must be central to who we are. It forms our identity.”
“Many people in the church have decided to take on the name of Christ and nothing else. This would be like Jesus walking up to those first disciples and saying, “Hey, would you guys mind identifying yourselves with Me in some way? Don’t worry, I don’t actually care if you do anything I do or change your lifestyle at all. I’m just looking for people who are willing to say they believe in Me and call themselves Christians.”
Francis Chan
Mark 2:23-3:6
“A “day off” cannot sustain the human soul. Only a Sabbath can.”
A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World
“The Sabbath is God’s solution to FOMO anxieties. On the Sabbath, we are “in” because we are with Jesus Christ. God is with us. And the world does not define us.”
A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World
“Not a passage that dismisses the Sabbath, but one that frees the Sabbath to be what it was originally intended to be; a sign pointing to the grace of God and to his ultimate sanctification of his people.”
Dan Zazvorka, 1988
Ten Signs that you might have a bit of a Pharisee in you…
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You Like Rules… a Lot!
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You Think It is Your Job to Defend Right and Call Out Wrong.
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You Are Quick to Criticize and Slow To Compliment.
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You See The Bad and Not Good Enough Before the Beautiful and the Possible in Every Situation.
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You Just Wish People Were More Like You.
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You Don’t Eat and Drink with People Far From God.
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Every New Reading of Scripture is Guilty Until Proven Innocent.
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The Rule is More Important to You than the Reality.
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About the Issue More Than The Person.
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You Hold Yourself to a Higher Standard than Jesus
Mark 2:23-28, Genesis 2, Exodus 20:8;11
1. The Sabbath is Built into the Rhythm of Creation
Genesis 2
“The Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight. The Sabbath when experienced as God intended, is the best day of our lives. Without question or thought, it is the best day of the week. It is the day we anticipate on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday – and the day we remember on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Sabbath is the holy time where we feast, play, dance, have sex, sing, pray, laugh, tell stories, read, paint, walk, and watch creation in its fullness. Few people are willing to enter the Sabbath and sanctify it, to make it holy, because a full day of delight and joy is more than most people can bear in a lifetime, let alone a week.”
Dan Allender
In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between work and rest. All life requires a rhythm of rest. There is a rhythm in our waking activity and the body’s need for sleep. There is rhythm in the way day dissolves into night, and night into morning. There is rhythm as the active growth of spring and summer is quieted by the necessary dormancy of fall and winter. There is tidal rhythm, a deep, eternal conversation between the land of the great sea. In our bodies, the heart perceptibly rests after each life-giving beat; the lungs rest between the exhale and the inhale. We have lost this essential rhythm…
Our culture invariably supposes that action and accomplishment are better than rest, that doing something - anything – is better than doing nothing. Because of our desire to succeed…we do not rest. Because we do not rest, we lose our way. We miss the compass points that would show us where to go, we bypass the nourishment that would give us aid. We miss the quiet that would give us wisdom. We miss the joy and love born of effortless delight. Poisoned by this hypnotic belief that good things come only through unceasing determination and tireless effort, we can never truly rest. And for want of rest, our lives are in danger.”
Wayne Mueller
2. God Blessed the Sabbath
3. God Made the Sabbath Holy
“The Sabbaths are your great cathedrals.”
“Architecture in time.”
Abraham Heschel
Exodus 20:8,11
4. The Sabbath is Not the Same as a Day Off
5. Sabbath is a Command and a Gift
6. Remember the Sabbath
Luke 24:13-32
“Without that we die, whether you live in an Auschwitz or in a luxury apartment downtown.”
Viktor Frankl - Man’s Search For Meaning
“We substituted and deified nation for God. Americans looked increasingly to the nation, not to God, as the source of justice, mercy, and hope.”
Andrew Delbanco - The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope
“Our hope is now for individual freedom to pursue our own private ideas for good and discover our authentic selves.”
Tim Keller – Counterfeit gods
“What oxygen is to the lungs hope to the meaning of life.”
Emil Brunner
To Have Hope: A conviction of a coming good based on reality, not on wishful thinking.
“When that story leads somewhere . . . it gives us hope. Not a sense of optimism that the economy will pick up, or that we’ll land the promotion we’ve been working toward, or that our children will grow up healthy and happy. Hope is a deep sense of comfort that saturates our soul when we believe that our lives are a part of something larger. Hope inhabits us when we see our lives as enmeshed in a larger story that reassures us that life is more than simply about filling time until we die.”
Andrew Delbanco - The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope
“The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creations. Not to make people with better morals, but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love. This, my friends, is what it really means to be a Christian. Our religion never begins with what we do for God. It always starts with what God has done for us, the great and wondrous things that God dreamed of and achieved for us in Christ Jesus.” - Brennan Manning
Mark 2:1-12; 1:15
- April 6th sermon needs to get put up on podcast.
Lament: To Complain to God
Psalm 22:1-2, Psalm 88, 1 Peter 5:6-7,Luke 19:41–42, 2 Corinthians 6:4-10
Mark 1:35-39, John 17:13-23
“Community is vitally important because the church – the community of God’s people – is the hermeneutic of the gospel. In other words, the community of the church is the living, breathing, in-your-face demonstration of what it means to live under the reign of God.”
Wes Roberts and Glenn Marshall Reclaiming God’s Original Intent for the Church
“Clearly the early Christians thought their way of life was important, for lifestyle is not the only product of belief; it is a display of what people truly believe. The Christians lifestyle embodies their habitus, the reflexes that reveal the inner character that resulted from their conversion.”
Alan Kreider The Patient Ferment of the Early Church
“In the 20th century (generally speaking), protestant Christians set out to make America Christian and ended up making Christianity American.”
Stanley Hauerwas
“Society was regarded by the Desert Fathers as a shipwreck from which each single individual man and woman had to swim for their lives. These were people who believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenets and values of what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster.”
Thomas Merton
Mark 1:21-39
Map of Galilee
1. Jesus did his work in the synagogue and in the home.
2. Jesus saw the home as a place of ministry and mission.
Ministry – serving people inside God’s
Mission – serving people outside of the faith
3. Jesus carved out times of renewal.
Mark 1:16-20; 10:21-22; 28-31; 8:34-37; 3:31-35; 8:14-18; 10:32-40; 14:48-52
Order:
Mark 1:16-20
“In the 20th century (generally speaking), protestant Christians set out to make America Christian and ended up making Christianity American.” Stanley Hauerwas
1. You have to Drop Everything to follow Jesus
“When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
Dietrich Bonheoffer - Cost of Discipleship
10:21-22; 28-31
“To be invited by Jesus to be a disciple is to be invited out of mediocrity. You’re invited into the Kingdom of God. You go from fish to men, you go from a couple of dollars to a Kingdom. Jesus’ invitation is always for something greater for our hearts.”
Jon Tyson
2. Think about the cost of NOT following Jesus.
Mark 8:34-37
3. Following Jesus happens in Community
Mark 3:31-35
4. To become like your Rabbi Jesus, it takes time.
Mark 8:14-18
Mark 10:32-40
Mark 14:48-52
5. Apprentices make Apprentices
“Make disciples, not converts!”
Dallas Willard
3 Myths of Discipleship
Myth #1 = A disciple is a really mature Christian
Myth #2 = Discipleship is Mentorship
Myth #3 = "Disciple" is a verb.
Jesus brought about a reformation by telling a subversive, alternative story. He told a story that is more than science, more than history, more than philosophy, more than anthropology, and more than morality. A story that not only happened once, but is happening still. And you and I are invited into that!
The Gospel According to Mark
Series #1: Drop Everything
February 16th, 2020
Follow Part 1: Be My Apprentice
Mark 1:16-20
Map of Galilee
1. Beit Sepher “House of the Book”
2. Beit Talmud OR Beit Midrash “The House of Learning”
3. Talmidim
Picture of Doremus Family
Map of Albania
“A disciple is anyone whose ultimate goal is to live as Jesus would live if he were in their place.”
Dallas Willard
Mark 1:14-15, Isaiah 61:1, Matthew 6:10, Mark 15:43, Isaiah 40:3; 40:9-10, Daniel 2:45-45
Mark 1:14-15
Two Parts:
What the Kingdom of God is
What the Kingdom of God is not
Isaiah 61:1
Can be translated “Gods Rule – God’s Reign
The Kingdom of God = God’s Rulership
“Active exercising of God’s power and authority”
Matthew 6:10, Mark 15:43, Isaiah 40:3; 40:9-10, Daniel 2:45-45
Misconception #1: The Kingdom of God is Heaven
Misconception #2: The Kingdom of God is the Church
Misconception #3: The Kingdom of God is Socio-Political
Misconception #4: The Kingdom of God is Spiritual
“Give up your agenda and trust me for mine!” NT Wright
Don’t live for a world that is passing away, live for a world that is coming to pass!
Mark 1:9-12, John 5:19, Philippians 2:6-7a, John 17:23+26
"In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Mark 1:9-12
“It doesn’t mean that Jesus saw a little door ajar miles up in the sky. ‘Heaven’ in the Bible often means God’s dimension behind ordinary reality. It’s more as though an invisible curtain right in front of us, was suddenly pulled back, so that instead of the tress and flowers and buildings, or in Jesus’ case the river, the sandy desert and the crowds, they’re standing in the presence of a different reality altogether. “ NT Wright
John 5:19, Jesus tells us “the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.”
BAPTISM = REPENTANCE = TRANSFERRING IDENTITY
“Repentance means reorienting our values, habits, loves, thinking, and behavior according to a different understanding, one rooted in the revelation of Gods nature and coming reign” -Johnathan Pennington
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing,by taking the very nature of a servant.” Philippians 2:6-7a
“I in them, and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17: 23 + 26)
1. Have you repented of your sins, been baptized and filled with the Spirit?
2. What’s next? What is next on your transformation?
3. Are you leaning into the Spirit to sustain you along the way?
“Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately everything that he remembered, without however recording in order what was either said or done by Christ. For neither did he hear the Lord, nor did he follow Him; but afterwards, as I said, (attended) Peter, who adapted his instructions to the needs (of his hearers) but had no design of giving a connected account of the Lord's oracles. So then Mark made no mistake, while he thus wrote down some things as he remembered them; for he made it his one care not to omit anything that he heard, or to set down any false statement therein."
Papias the Bishop of Hierapolis
“The history on which I am entering is that of a period rich in disasters, terrible with battles, torn by civil struggles, horrible even in peace. Four emperors fell by the sword; there were three civil wars, more foreign wars, and often both at the same time. There was success in the East, misfortune in the West. Besides the manifold misfortunes that befell mankind, there were prodigies in the sky and on the earth, warnings given by thunderbolts, and prophecies of the future, both joyful and gloomy, uncertain and clear.”
The Histories of Tacitus
"First, then, the confessed members of the sect were arrested; next, on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson as for hatred of the human race. And derision accompanied their end: they were covered with wild beasts' skins and torn to death by dogs; or they were fastened on crosses, and, when daylight failed, were burned to serve as lamps at night."
Tacitus, Annals XV: XLIV, 283-85
Mark 8:27-34; 15:39
Mark 1:1; 1:10
Order:
Mark 1:1
“Augustus was sent as Savior…the birthday of the son of the god Caesar was the beginning of his good news.”
Roman Inscription
“Gospel refers to the story about Jesus narrated in the text. It comprises Jesus’ words, deeds, death and resurrection as God’s direct intervention into human history. It challenges and imperial cult propaganda that brings messages of good tidings and a new age of peace through the Roman Empire.”
Robert Gundry
“Mark titles his book “The Gospel” because he is gospeling in this book. What does that mean? That Mark is narrating the saving story of Jesus.”
Elizabeth Shively
Eden, Israel, and Rome
Mark 1:10
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was uninhabitable and like a wasteland. The Spirit of God flapped his wings over the waters like a dove.”
“For Mark the actual introduction of Jesus is not less momentous than the creation of the world. For in the person of Jesus, new creation is at hand.”
Nt. Wright
Creation
De-creation
Recreation
Mark 1:1
“Mark’s gospel is an apology for a crucified Messiah and a polemic against the imperial power of Rome.”
N.T. Wright, The New Testament in It’s World
Are we people of the future?
Are we people of the resurrection?
Are we announcing with our lives and our money and our time and our allegiances… are we announcing the good news that Jesus is Lord?
Papias the Bishop of Hierapolis
“The history on which I am entering is that of a period rich in disasters, terrible with battles, torn by civil struggles, horrible even in peace. Four emperors fell by the sword; there were three civil wars, more foreign wars, and often both at the same time. There was success in the East, misfortune in the West. Besides the manifold misfortunes that befell mankind, there were prodigies in the sky and on the earth, warnings given by thunderbolts, and prophecies of the future, both joyful and gloomy, uncertain and clear.”
The Histories of Tacitus
"First, then, the confessed members of the sect were arrested; next, on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson as for hatred of the human race. And derision accompanied their end: they were covered with wild beasts' skins and torn to death by dogs; or they were fastened on crosses, and, when daylight failed, were burned to serve as lamps at night."
Tacitus, Annals XV: XLIV, 283-85
Mark 8:27-34; 15:39
ohn 6:35, Isaiah 9:2, Revelation 21:23-25
78,391,156
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through
the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
Our job is to train up a generation to laugh at the lie that our joy must be purchased.
Shane Clairborne
Cocal Cola Santa Image
John 6:35
Isaiah 9:2
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
Revelation 21:23-25
23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light,and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.
Matthew 1:1, 1 Samuel 16:1-13*, Isaiah 11:1-4*
Matthew 1:1
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Isaiah 11:1-4
Advent – is all about life beginning to rise in you where you no longer expect it to come from.
Tamarisk Tree Image:
Hope without Honesty = Denial
Honesty without Hope = Despair
Matthew 1:1, Genesis 12:1-4
The Bright Sadness: “the sadness of my exile, of the waste I have made of my life; the brightness of God’s presence and forgiveness, the joy of the recovered desire for God, the peace of the recovered home.”
JOY - Closely related to gladness and happiness, although joy is more a state of being than an emotion; a
result of choice. The Lexham Bible Dictionary
WONDERED (delogistico) - “wondered” or “deologistico” in the Greek means; to use logic, to reason
with intensity. Encounters with Jesus by Timothy Keller (196)
Quotes:
“We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give
thanks for daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge,
experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly
for the highest good…..How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from
Him the little things?” -Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (29)
“The holiest, most universal and most necessary practice in the spiritual life is the presence of God. To
practice the presence of God is to take pleasure in and become accustomed to His Divine Company…”
The Practice of the presence of God by Brother Lawrence (125)
“It is not enough,” he continues, “to love God and to know Him only by what books tell us about him, by
what we feel about Him in our souls, by fleeting feelings of devotion, or by some sort of personal
spiritual illumination. We must make our faith alive and by faith rise above our feelings, to adore God
and Jesus Christ in Themselves. This way of faith is the spirit of the Church, and it is all we need to arrive
at a high degree of perfection.” The Practice of the presence of God by Brother Lawrence (143)
“No one would dare celebrate Jubilee unless they had a deep trust in God’s ability to provide for their
needs. Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster (195)
“So poke fun at yourself. Enjoy wholesome jokes and clever puns. Relish good comedy. Learn to laugh; it
is a discipline to be mastered. Let go of the everlasting burden of always needing to sound profound”
Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster (198)
Scriptures:
Luke 1:26-38
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in
Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s
name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is
with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the
angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give
birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most
High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s
descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called [a] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your
relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her
sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Philippians 4:4-7
4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is
near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Luke 9:49-50
49“Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop
him, because he is not one of us.”
50“Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”
Matthew 16:21-27
Matthew 16:21-24
“We have been led to believe that the self is sacrosanct; just as in an earlier time it was thought never fitting to deny God, now it feels never right to deny self.”
-Robert C Roberts
Matthew 16:24-27
Option A: “Deny Jesus, Follow Self”
WILL Lose Your Life
Option B: “Deny Self, Follow Jesus”
WILL Save Your Life
“The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every [person] must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old self which is the result of [their] encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ.
When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call.”
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
Your ability to trust God, and allowing him to lead you, even though he will lead you to the cross.
John 15:18-21, 1 John 2, Deuteronomy 29:16-19
Order:
John 15:18-21
1 John 2:15-17
Cosmos:
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Planet Earth = Romans 1:20
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Humanity = John 3:16
“A Culture, the patterns of beliefs, social forms, dispositions, and values that are institutionalized in people’s collective life.”
Cornelius Plantinga Jr.
“Our cultural and social practices, that are under the control of Satan and, thus opposed to God.”
Dallas Willard
The world is a system of ideas, values, practices, and social norms that are institutional in a culture organized around the twin sins of rebellion against God and the redefinition of good and evil.
1. Syncretism
2. Choose Your Own Adventure
“An alarming number of Christians are very prone to viewing their faith as largely a volunteer enterprise. They pick and choose which values they wish to adopt from Scripture and which they will adopt from the dominant culture. This syncretistic approach to faith is only possible because of the unexamined assumption that we are in charge of our doctrine, dogma, and morals rather than God. Much of its appeal lies in the ability to blend in with the surrounding culture, minimize our discomfort, and still hold to the illusion of being Christian-like in one’s behavior.”
David Tackle – The Truth About Lies
Deuteronomy 29:16-19
1 John 2:15-17
1. Lust of the Flesh
2. Lust of the Eyes
3. Pride of Life
Galatians 6:1-9
Deceitful ideas, that play to disordered desires, that are normalized in a sinful society.
The Law of Returns
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Every Action has a Reaction
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That Reaction is often Disproportionate to the Action
“No matter what we sow, the law of return applies. Good or evil, love or hate, justice or tyranny, grapes or thorns, a gracious compliment or a peevish complaint – whatever we invest, we tend to get it back with interest. Lovers are loved; haters, hated. Forgivers usually get forgiven; those who live by the sword die by the sword. ‘God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.’”
Cornelius Plantiga Jr.
“Inside a given human life, the dynamics of sowing, reaping and resowing lie behind the process of character formation. Dispositions and acts form character, which then forms dispositions and acts. A mere state of mind can eventually swell to become a person’s destiny. A fuller statement of the great law of returns would therefore go something like this: sow a thought, and reap a deed; sow a deed and reap another deed; sow a some deeds and reap a habit; sow some habits, and reap a character, sow a character, and reap two thoughts. The new thoughts then begin to pursue careers of their own…”
Cornelius Plantiga Jr.
“Your deepest desire is the one manifested by your daily life and habits. This is because our action—our doing—bubbles up from our loves, which, as we’ve observed, are habits we’ve acquired through the practices we’re immersed in. That means the formation of my loves and desires can be happening “under the hood” of consciousness. I might be learning to love a telos that I’m not even aware of and that nonetheless governs my life in unconscious ways.”
James K.A. Smith - You Are What You Love
Ephesians 4:17-28
“Basic conversion must be followed by daily conversion.”
“Spiritual formation in Christ moves toward a total interchange of our ideas and images for his.”
Dallas Willard
In its Roman-era setting, for example, Christianity was so different that critics of the time referred to it as a "superstition" (meaning a bogus or dangerous religion).
Larry Hurtado – Destroyer of the gods
Our apprenticeship of Jesus means we begin to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus enabled by the Holy Spirit.
The Devil’s Strategy:
Deceitful ideas, that play to disordered desires, that are normalized in a sinful society.
“As we first turned away from God in our thoughts, so it is that our thoughts that the first movements toward the renovation of the heart occur. Thoughts are the place where we can and must begin to change… The process of spiritual formation in Christ is one of progressively replacing those destructive images and ideas with the images and ideas that fill the mind of Jesus himself… spiritual formation in Christ moves toward a total interchange of our ideas and images for His.”
Dallas Willard
“The hidden dimension of each human life is not visible to others, nor is it fully graspable even by ourselves. We usually know very little about the things that move in our own soul, the deepest level of our life, or what is driving it. Our “within” is astonishingly complex and subtle—even devious. It takes on a life of its own. Only God knows our depths, who we are, and what we would do.”
Dallas Willard
1. The Scriptures
2. The Spirit of God
3. The Community of Jesus
Where are my own energies, insecurities, wounds and fears being used against me in my experiencing the kind of life that Jesus has on offer?
Genesis 3 1-6, Luke 4:1-11
The chief dispute in the world is who has authority and who deserves to be worshipped.
3 Great Questions in Life:
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Who is God? (Theology)
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Who are we/am I? (Anthropology/Identity)
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What is the good life? How do we live? (Morality/Sociology)
1. Silencing the Adversary starts with recognizing the voice of God.
2. Silencing the Adversary comes through obedience.
3. Silencing the Adversary requires us to trust.
“Worship works from the top down, you might say. In worship we don’t just come to show God our devotion and give him our praise; we are called to worship because in this encounter God (re)makes and molds us top-down. Worship is the arena in which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms our desires, and rehabituates our loves. Worship isn’t just something we do; it is where God does something to us. Worship is the heart of discipleship because it is the gymnasium in which God retrains our hearts.”
James K.A. Smith
“Jesus is a teacher who doesn’t just inform our intellect but forms our very loves. He isn’t content to simply deposit new ideas into your mind; he is after nothing less than your wants, your loves, your longings.”
James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love
Daniel 10:1-14, Mark 9:14-29, Acts 10:38, Luke 13:10-16,
Romans 8:18-22, John 8:44; 10:10
Order of Slides:
Daniel 10:1-14
One Slide:
1. Sickness and Death
2. Natural Evil
3. Chaos
Mark 9:14-29
Acts 10:38
Luke 13:10-16
“God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go right or wrong. Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata – of creatures that worked like machines – would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which most rapturous love between an man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they’ve got to be free…”
“Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently, He thought it worth the risk… If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will, that is, for making a real world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings, then we may take it that it is worth paying.”
C.S. Lewis
Romans 8:18-22
“I am bewildered. I had not intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot see, as plainly as others do, and as I wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumon Wasp with the express intention of feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice. What a book a Devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low and horridly cruel works of nature!”
Charles Darwin
John 8:44
“When one possesses a vital awareness that in between God and humanity there exists a vast society of spiritual beings who are quite like humans in possessing intelligence and free will, there is simply no difficulty in reconciling the reality of evil with the goodness of a supreme God. It virtually sidesteps the problem of evil.”
Greg Boyd
“In the same way, Christ in principle defeated the powers with the unsurpassable love he unleashed through his incarnation, life, ministry, death and resurrection. D-day has been fought and won. But we are still waiting for V-day. In the meantime, there are many important battles to fight. Indeed, sometimes and enemy fights the hardest when they know their doom is certain.”
Greg Boyd
John 10:10
“If indeed there were a God whose true nature-whose justice and sovereignty- were revealed in the death of a child or in the dereliction of a soul or a predestined hell, then it would be no great transgression to think of him as a kind of malevolent or contemptible demiurge, and to hate him, and to deny him worship, and to seek a better God than he.”
David Bentley Hart
“The call of the gospel is for the church to implement the victory of God in the world through suffering love.”
N.T. Wright
Ephesians 6:10-18, Galatians 4:1-9, Colossians 2:15
1. Convince You that You are in Peace Time
“Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.”
2. Keep You From Your True Identity
“It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.”
3. You Do Not Really Know Your City
“When they have really learned to love their neighbours as themselves, they will be allowed to love themselves as their neighbours.”
4. Lull You Into Forgetting What Time It Is
“For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity.”
5. Here God’s Song of Love For The World
“The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.”
6. Trick You That Your Worship is Not Powerful
“A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all—and more amusing.”
Genesis 1:1, Exodus 12:12; 15:1-2,11, Psalm 82:1-8, Ephesians 6:10-12
“The Bible from beginning to end presupposes spiritual beings who exist between humanity and God and whose behavior significantly affects human existence, for better of for worse.”
Greg Boyd – God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict
“From a cross-cultural perspective, the insight that the cosmos is teeming with spiritual beings whose behavior can and does benefit or harm us is simply common sense. It is we Westerners who are the oddballs for thinking that the only free agents who influence other people and things are human.”
Greg Boyd – God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict
“At least for those of us for whom this collection of canonical books is no mere collection but rather constitutes the inspired Word of God, not seriously considering the warfare worldview can hardly be said to be an option, however much such a view may conflict with our own naturalistic cultural perspectives.”
Michael Heiser – Supernatural: What the Bible teaches about the unseen world and why it matters.
John 8:44-45, Genesis 3:1-15, Luke 4:1-13, 2 Corinthians 2:11
For Jesus, the devil’s primary strategy to ruin the soul and society isn’t what most of us expect. It’s lies. More specifically, it’s deceptive ideas that play to disordered desires that are normalized in a sinful society. In this teaching, we explore how we are transformed by Spirit and truth, and deformed by isolation and lies.
The Devil’s Strategy:
Deceitful ideas, that play to disordered desires, that are normalized in a sinful society.
Remember when the snake comes to Eve with Malevolent intent… it does not come at her with a sword or stick or drone, but with an idea.
3 Great Questions in Life:
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Who is God? (Theology)
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Who are we/am I? (Anthropology/Identity)
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What is the good life? How do we live? (Morality/Sociology)
Creator – Design – Intent – Morality – Accountability
It is by the Spirit and Truth that we are transformed into the image of Christ and set free to live in line with all that is good in the world, and it is by isolation and lies that we are deformed into the image of Satan and enslaved in a life of evil and death.
We are transformed into the image of Jesus by Spirit and Truth.
“Mental Health is an ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs.”
M. Scott Peck
By Isolation and lies that we are deformed.
“Jesus is a teacher who doesn’t just inform our intellect but forms our very loves. He isn’t content to simply deposit new ideas into your mind; he is after nothing less than your wants, your loves, your longings.”
James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love
“The general human failing is to want what is right and important, but at the same time not to commit to the kind of life that will produce the action we know and the condition we want to enjoy. This is the feature of human character that explains why the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We intend what is right, but we avoid the life that would make it a reality.”
Dallas Willard
John 8:31-46
1. For Jesus, there is a Devil…
2. The Jesus the end goal of the devil is to murder…
3. His Strategy: Lies and Deception
“We live at the mercy of our ideas.”
Dallas Willard
A Lie = An assumption about reality that is not true.
The Devil’s strategy:
Deceitful ideas, that play to disordered desires, that are normalized in a sinful society.
Freedom From vs. Freedom to
“Ideas… are the primary stronghold of evil in the human self and in society.”
Dallas Willard
“The empires of the future will be empires of the mind.”
Winston Churchill
It is about the fight to believe truth over lies.
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.”
The Usual Suspects
Matthew 4:18-22; 8:18-22; 9:9-13; 10:1-4; 20:20-28
1. Jesus lived in community
2. Lots of people turned down his invitation
3. The End Goal in community was to grow people into a people of love
1. Individualism
2. Idealism
“The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community, the better for both. A community which cannot bear and cannot survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community. Sooner or later it will collapse. Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more that the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.”
Dietrich Bonheoffer-Life Together
3. Intimidation
John 21:18-19, Matthew 6:25-34, Romans 8:38-39
John 21:18-19
Two Dimensions to our Apprenticeship to Jesus: Active and Passive
Matthew 6:25-34
Romans 8:38-39
“Without him we can’t, without us he won’t.”
Augustine
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Reinhold Niebuhr
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
If I surrender to His Will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with Him
Forever and ever in the next.
Amen.
Reinhold Niebuhr
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Make Space
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Move Toward the Pain
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Accept the Invitations of Jesus in Your Life Right Now
“We mature by meeting life, just as God designed it, and accepting there the invitations that beckon us ever deeper into the heart of life itself.”
Rolheiser – The Sacred Fire
What are the invitations of Jesus right now in your stage and seasons of life?