MANIFESTO- Week 6: LUST

I remember a sleepover when I was a child...the stork... all agreed, we wanted to be married, we wanted to have kids, but none of us wanted to go through the messy awkwardness of sex.

I remember as a teenager me and most of my friends were thinking I’m not sure if I want to go through all that messiness of marriage and having kids, but you know, that sex part seems like it might be alright...

I remember thinking, I can’t wait until I’m married and then I won’t have to worry about LUST anymore...

I remember getting married, and how then, for the first time really, an appetite was awakened in me. And I never really struggled with lust UNTIL that appetite was awakened. And I knew that if I was going to have a good and Godly sex life, and if I was not going to be consumed and driven by lust, that I was going to have to go deeper, that I was going to have to go to God, and talk with Robin, and get advice from good men...

Now that I’m in my 30’s I’m eager to get to my 40’s because I figure that certainly by then I won’t have to struggle with lust anymore because my sex drive will have so drastically diminished...

Today we are talking about lust. We are working our way through Matthew 5-7, SoM, MANIFESTO. Jesus has begun walking through a change in life so powerful, so deep, so all encompassing, that it turns lives, and our world, upside down and inside out. A change so pervasive I have been calling it deep religion, although the better word is deep relationship. He is starting at the surface level of what religion has become. What has it become? “You have heard that it was said....” Jesus uses laws, or teachings form the law, to talk about contempt, lust, divorce, lying, revenge and war and peace. No Jesus says, i want to take you deeper in each. Deeper to the heart of darkness. He goes deeper and deeper and deeper- from the anger that lives in each of us, to the lust thats that it can breed, to the breakdown of what is supposed to be the unbreakable relationship we have in this world, to the breakdown of the truth of our own words and vows... deeper and deeper and deeper we go.

We could spend the rest of the summer going deeper, just like we could have spent the whole summer on the beatitudes. But today I want to tell you a story. A story that i can’t help but think that Jesus may have had in mind when he taught this message. A story that would seem so far fetched if it wasn’t in fact so common in or world. A story of a man and a woman who walks down this path of destruction, but who, at their darkest hour, are able to make a turn, and begin a long slow crawl back out- broken, battered, changed forever, but still alive, and eventually, able to even thrive. It’s a a scathing tale, but ultimately, one of hope.

I want to begin with the end- the inevitable destination that lust will drive us toward. Then we’ll work out way out.

The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, "There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4 "Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him."
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity."
7 Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man!

The story of David spans the course of 4 books in the bible- from his first mention in Ruth, through 1 and 2 Samuel, into 1 Kings. David was the 8th of eight sons. In our time often the baby of the family gets special treatment. I know, I’m the baby in my family. It’s not a bad gig. Not so in ancient times. By the time you got to number 8 you were so far down the line in the peeking order, you were literally left the scraps and crumbs.

David is left to tend his family sheep out in the wilderness. With a sling in one hand to protect himself and the flock, and a flute in the other to pass the time, David was pretty much left alone to soak in the beauty of his surrounding, and to live in his imagination. He must have developed a wonderful appreciation for God’s creation and beauty, and a wonderful way with words, for later in life he would write some of the worlds most inspired, uplifting and well know poems.

David was minding his work one day when a messenger comes to bring him to his fathers house. There waiting, standing, was his father Jesse, his 7 older, bigger, stronger, meaner looking brothers, and a man named Samuel. everyone knew Samuel, the prophet, the boy given to God, the man who anointed Saul King over Israel. Before David probably even knew what was unfolding before him, his is standing before Samuel, and he is anointed king over all of Israel.

What a head trip- can you imagine what it would be like, as a teenager, a boy, to be told that you will be king over your entire nation? And to add to the surreal nature of this event, there is already a king in power, who has his own sons waiting to take the throw. Not only is he in power, he seems to have gone a bit corrupt, a bit mad, from the power of the throne.

Fast forward through the years- David learns of a giant named Goliath mocking God and holding the people in a grip of fear, and so he goes out to the battle field and literally slays the warrior with a sling and stone. He fame begins to grow. He becomes a servant in the house of king Saul. He takes the kings daughter as his wife. He becomes best friends with Saul’s own son. He wins victory after victory. Everything he touches turns to gold. It seems he can do no wrong. Everyone loves him it seems, except Saul. Saul get a bit jealous. I can relate to that.

David rises to power, but it is a long a rough road, filled with fighting, pain, trial and temptation. It is not until he is 30 years old that he finally takes the throne. He has followed this path well- he did not subvert the plans of God,he did not take short cuts, he did not take the easy road. He truly demonstrated that God’s spirit was with him, and he was a man after God’s own heart. But even a Godly man can have lusts.

It was the spring, the time for love, the time to plant in fertile ground, but also the time to take new ground. The Ammonites sacked a city not far from Jerusalem. The first punch had been thrown, and war was declared. But for the first time ever in his life David, King David, did not lead the charge into battle, but instead, stayed home, in his palace, in Jerusalem. Why didn’t he go? Who knows what all was going through his head. Maybe he didn’t feel well. Maybe he felt there were more pressing matters that he, the king should attend. maybe he wanted to empower Joab, his second in command, with more responsibility. Maybe he was just starting to enjoy the business lunches and comforts of the kingdom a little too much. Whatever the mix of maybe and reasons, he stayed behind.

And one night he got up from his bed, he went out to the roof of his palace, a common thing for a king to do to look upon his city. Many nights David would have walked his roof, inspired by the beauty of the city of Jerusalem,a city set on a hill with an awe inspiring view over the Promised Land. A view that inspired him to writes psalms and poems about the city built for God. Many night he would have come up to the roof to stand in awe of the moon and stars, countless as they are. But that night it wasn’t the beauty of the city or patterns of stars splashed across the sky that captured David’s eyes. His eyes were focused much lower that night, much more to the what might be found in the city.

That night a woman named Bathsheba was out on her roof. Bathsheba means she who takes a bath on the roof- her parents should have known better. Just kidding. David was shocked when he saw her naked figure glistening in the moonlight. He instinctively turned his head in shame for what he saw and what he began to think... He did no such thing.

When we are young the naked form holds no particular shame or interest for us. We are comfortable in our own skin and with our own parts. And we are comfortable with others skin and their parts. In fact, if there anything that the naked form evokes from the eyes of children, it’s laughter. There’s a certain silliness, a goofiness, a vulnerability to the naked form.

But over time our view of ourselves begins to change. Our view of others begins to change. The age of Aquarius so to speak. The age of awareness- and awareness of what the parts are there for. The awareness of what the parts can do, and the pleasure they can bring.

David was more than aware. He was now aware of his own position. His own power. And so that night he didn’t turn. And that night Bathsheba didn’t hide herself as well. For surely she knew she was a desirable woman. Sure she knew she was in full view of the palace. Surely she knew David had not lead the charge to battle this time. Surely she knew David’s habits, everybody knew David’s habits. And so the journey into the darkest places that human lust and desire can take two people began to swallow David and Bathesheba.

Who is she? David asks. Bathsheba, wife of Uriah. Oh, that must have hurt, for at least a moment. Uriah, not an unknown name to David. Not some nameless soldier, expendable, and replaceable. Uriah, who we find out later, was one of David’s mighty men, an elite group of men who had proven themselves extraordinarily gifted, strong, and above all loyal to David and God. There was an actual pecking order to the soldiers, and he was in the top tier. Uriah was in fact a trusted friend of David.

Still, David sends for her. She comes. They indulge the lust that has brought them this far. She goes home. And a short while later David gets a special delivery. It’s a little white stick with a window on the end and in that window he sees a plus sign. She’s pregnant.

What unfolds now is nothing less that the most graphic playing out of the consequences of lust at it’s worst. What plays out demonstrates the worst in David, the worst in Bathsheba, the worst in human nature, positioned right next to the best, most loyal, most trusting, most noble that any man could ever hope to be. The story gives all the sorted details. David sends for Uriah to come home from the battle field, to give a report, how was Joab doing as commander, how’s the battle going, what the moral of the men? Great job Uriah, you’re a good man, why don’t you go home now, spend the night, wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more. Uriah sleeps on the steps of the palace because no committed soldier would ever dream of sleeping in a bed and making love to his wife while his fellow soldiers are on the field of battle!

Uriah, wait, don’t go back, I have, uh, more I want to tell you. Have a drink while you’re here. have another drink, and another, and another, as many as you want. And again he sleeps on the steps of the palace.

Oh Uriah, you’re not going to make this easy are you. And so David’s hand is forced. What else can he do? He sends a message with Uriah for Joab. He delivers them just as he was told, just like a noble, loyal, fully devoted soldier would do. He delivers his own death warrant.

Bathsheba goes through the customary mourning period. David, noble, good, Godly king that he was, does the only honorable thing, he has pity on this poor widow, and takes her as his own wife, and she gave birth to a son. And the chapter ends with these words: “But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.” 2 Sm 11:27

And so Nathan says to David, you are the man. You have spun that tale of lies and deceit, of broken vows and and late night liaisons, of lust, and anger, and finally, murder. And the tale would seem far-fetched and far removed from the realm of possibility if only, if only we didn’t see it played out with different names, and different details, but with the same ending, over and over and over again.

“But why is it wrong if it isn’t hurting anyone,” we tell ourselves. And if only that were the case. But it is hurting countless lives. It is hurting men and women, young and old. It is hurting marriages and destroying families. It has lead to the downfall of empires.

What is lust...
Lust by definition desires what is forbidden.
The very fact that it cannot have it, feeds the lust even more.
It feeds it and drives it until it finds away.
And then we find ourselves doing things we woudl have never imagined.
Sneaking around. Hiding bills. Lurking in the shadows. Craving the cover of night.

Along the way lust exacts a terrible price.
Lust degrades the object of desire.
It turns him or her into it.
It takes removes everything messy for the equation- love, commitment, marriage.
It removes relationships.

Finally, lust degrades the luster.
It separates us form our emotions, our commitments, our relationships
It compartmentalizes us.
It creates 2 people living in one body

Lust is an appetite that grows when fed. Our body grows when fed. Many people will fool themselves and say I’ll just go on this one binge and get it out of my system. Sorry folks, doesn’t work that way. Indulge and appetite and it will only grow stronger.

Jesus drives us to the heart of the appetite. He says...
27"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.'[e] 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

I don’t want anyone here thinking that the solution to lust is to begin cutting out and cutting off the parts of our body that are involved. Because when you keep going down this path, to simply cut out and cut off any part of our body that leads us into sin we will cut our both eyes, and both hands, and both legs, and will still not cut our the problem. We will have to cut out imagination, as if that was possible. We would have to take this all the way to our heart, and say Jesus, Jesus, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to actually cut out my heart and give it to you so that you can I can be free from lust and sin?

Yes. That is exactly where Jesus is taking us. God says I look to the heart. And I know what goes on in the hearts of men and women. And if we are going to do something about this sin issue- the anger, the lust, they lying, the revenge, all this stuff, we have to go deep, as deep as we can possibly go, deep down. I need your heart. I need to change you from the inside out. I don’t want to treat the symptoms, I want to cut out the cancer.

Jesus says this is only going to work if you have a bigger picture of me, your God, if you have a bigger picture of you life and how valuable it is to me, and if you will embrace a kingdom perspective, a heavenly perspective. A perspective that says, in light of the relationship that jesus is inviting me into right now, in light of the kinds of relationships he is guiding me into, in light of the glorious riches of an eternity with God, this appetite is not worth it. It is just not worth my God, my family, my life!

And the great news today is that this is exactly what God did for David. At what could have been David’s worst moment, he turned, and it became one of his greatest moments. When he got busted, he didn’t lie or defend himself or laugh it off or go down that path of murder once more. He stopped. He repented. he confessed his sin. he fasted. He prayed. he wept. his life was forever changed. He was an adulterer now. A murderer. A liar. A deceiver. He was scarred for life and his family was scarred for life. He was never the same man again. He learned about heart change the hard way, and given the choice, given the choice, I can guarantee you he would have taken a different path.

Today I hope if you have not gone done a path of hard lessons learned, you’ll stay off that path. I hope that you’ll trust God with your heart and let him workout all anger and lust and lies and deceit before any of them destroy your life and the lives of those you love and your relationship with God.

But if you have gone down that path, can you just say today I’m busted. God has caught you with your pants down. God walked in and saw you on that website, he saw you watching that porno. He saw you in that hotel room. He saw you peering through that window. He knows what’s stored in the secret caches of your computer. Can you just say I’m busted and I want to repent, and I want a new heart, a new beginning, and I will do everything I can to make that heart change evident.

let God have you and change you from the inside out. let him do his work on your heart that he might root out every seed of lust that would destroy your love and your lives and the lives of those you love. Then make the outward changes necessary. Again, let me say, do not go to the extreme of self-mutilation. That is not the point. But Jesus does want us to go to an extreme.

If you need to confess, do it. If you need counseling, get it. If you need get to off the internet- get rid of it. Stop walking around on the roof at night trying to catch a glimpse, stopped taking baths on your roof at night. The evidence of a heart change is going to be changes in what we do with the lust and temptations that lurk in the dark. There are men and women here today that are walking rooftops and taking baths. If you keep walking long enough, if you keep baiting that hook, you are going to catch what you are fishing for. That door is going to open, that invitation will arrive.

MANIFESTO- Week 5: ANGER

How many people here would confess that you have experienced an episode of what you would consider road rage? You had an irrational exaggerated response to some rather typical driving experience. My brother had an almost unbelievable episode of Road Rage. Seveal years ago now, he is driving along in Lynchburg, VA...

Side Note: you need to wonder the people in a town that names itself "lynch" burg. They might as well have named it "We'll kill you burg." Anyways...

He realizes that his exit is coming up shortly, so he has to get over. Flips on his signal, nobody immediately gives him a spot, in fact, the guy beside him kind of tightens up with the car in front. JP sees a little room to slide in and very quickly pulls into the right lane. It was tight, but he really didn’t cut the guy off. But of course, the guy goes crazy. He’s honking his horn, you can see he’s yelling and screaming. JP takes his exit, the guy takes the exit, JP turns, the guy turns the same way. JP says I think this guys is going to do something crazy here. So JP quickly pulls into a parking lot, slams on the brakes, throws it in park, and jumps out of the car so fast the other guy doesn’t even have time to stop his car. JP is immediately on his car. Slamming his hands down on the hood, screaming at the top of his lungs. At this point the guy has, as you might suspect, a look of absolute horror on his face. That look of, "I thought I was gonna go road rage crazy on this guy, but this guy is at a whole different level of road rage crazy." He pulls off, in real hurry, JP is still jumping up and down like rabid animal. He gets back in the car, smiles, and simple says, just says something like "Hey, I I just figured I’d out crazy him before he ever got a chance to go crazy on me."

Now I can’t say I recommend that at all- as a pastor, or as a driver, or just as a human being. But I have to say that it sure worked to diffuse a situation before it ever really turned into a really bad situation. But let me give you this advice- before you become that guy or that lady who is ready explode, who is ready to fly into a fit or road rage, or worse, a fit of rage and anger unleashed on spouse, your kids, your parents, your friends, before it comes to that, you need to diffuse your situation. You need to deal with your anger before it get outta control. Before it gets you into a situation that you can’t back out of. Before it cause you to say something you can never take back, before you do something that can never be undone. Many lives, countless lives, have been changed forever, because of a fit of anger and rage. Don’t let it get to that point. Don’t wait until its too late to say I have to do something about this issue that lives inside of me. Let this be your wake up call.

Here's the thing- Every one of us had this monster lurking somewhere inside of us. All of us are going to get angry- it's a part of life. The question is, what going to happen with that anger. You’re the lady who if you get cut off in traffic, you are screaming your fool head off- I’ve seen you. I’ve been the instigator of that eruption. I made a bad move driving recently, like all of us have. I cut a lady off, and if she hadn’t been paying attention, I would have caused a wreck. But luckily she was. I did the whole “sorry” look and wave through the window, but I’m telling you, if this lady had been exposed to gamma radiation, she would have gone totally hulk on me. I couldn’t hear her, and I’m no lip reader, but I understood VERY clear who she thought I was and where she thought my head was, which would be impossible, and where she thought I should go to spend eternity, and none of it was very flattering or nice. It was very clear, she did not like me as a human being. She did not have a simple neutral stance towards me. I was worse than a worthless human being. Nothing was too bad for me- no name, no indecent act, no final outcome for my life could have possible been bad enough. All because I made an error while driving.

Maybe you are just way too image conscious and are way too good at image management to do that. Somebody cuts you off in traffic, and you wave, and you says, oh, you be more careful next time. But without really thinking, your mind goes through this little fantasy, and I’m not sure how it plays out in your head, but at the end of the escalations of anger it results in you physically harming or killing that person. You like that show Ally McBeal, the one where she always had these vivid scenes from her mind play out onscreen. You keep that happy face on, or that blank look on you face, but in your head, you have this horribly vivid fantasy life where anybody who makes you mad ends up dying some horrible death. You have actually pictured yourself slamming into them with your car, or even choking them to death. I’m not going to ask anyone to raise their hands or anything, but I know some of you can relate to that extreme sense of anger, I know, because I have experienced it. I have caught myself thinking horrible thoughts, and if I’m to be honest, practically murderous thoughts, because of little things that have made me angry. Thoughts of doing things that far outweigh what has been done to me.

That’s what unchecked anger does. That’s what lurking below the surface. Someone cuts you off, and you want to smash into their car. Someone calls you a name, and you want to choke the life out of them. The response you have in your mind or in reality, far outweighs what has actually been said or done to you. Jesus wants to get at this lurking issue. That HULK living under the surface, is who Jesus wants us to deal with.

Last week I ended with a challenge- read Matthew 5:21-48. Jesus is dealing with 6 issues that effect every single life, every one of us. He deals with anger, lust, divorce, lying, revenge, and enemies. I encouraged you to go where you needed to go this week. To focus on that issue that you need to deal with. I called this deep religion. Religion that cuts to the heart of the issues. Today and next week I want to deal with two of these issues. That’s all I have time for, then we’re on to other things. Today, as you may have guessed, we’re dealing with the guys who lives in us and is ready to smash and even kill if he got play out his little mind-game fantasies.

Let me ready you want Jesus says...

Matthew 5:21-26 21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother[b]will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,[c]' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.

23"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Jesus starts- don’t murder. If you murder someone, you’ll end up before the judge, and things won;t go well for you there. That pretty obvious. Jesus says, let’s go deeper. Don’t be angry with your brother. Doesn’t say you brother isn’t a jerk. Doesn’t say anything about what was done and if anger might or might not be justified. All it says, don’t be angry with your brother.

Let's make this clear as we start- not all anger is wrong. In fact, anger is a normal part of life in our world. Not all anger is wrong. You’ll often hear that not all anger is wrong. The bible teaches us in Ephesians, "in your anger do not sin." More, we know that one of the key characteristics of God in the bible is his wrath- his anger, or wrath, towards evil, wicked, singful things. Ther is muchinteh world that is worng and should make us angry. We can thus be angry about these things and not be in sin.

I beleive the key word here is that little "with." Don;t be angry with your brother. Don't focus your anger at that personal level. That's when relatioshisp start to break down.

COunselors will distinguish between eposodic anger and dispostional anger. There are episodes in life that should anger us. We are angered so that we might respond immediately to do something.

But someone who has an angry dispostion is in a who other category. this the person who is just living with teh seed of anger, bitterness, rage and malice growing within.

If you’re angry with you brother you’ll be subject to judgment. If you say to your brother Raca, you might literally get brought before the judgment council. Anybody here every say RACA to anyone- I haven’t, I think we’re all good. Case closed. Well, not quite. How about idiot, moron, imbecile, numbskull, dolt... Anything insult that basically says, you are a stupid person. Anybody ever say or think anything like that about another person- well, that’s not good Jesus says. But let’s go even deeper yet.

Anyone who says to another person, you fool, is in danger of the fire of hell. Wow, it doesn’t get much worse than that folks. Whether you believe in a heaven and hell, and I personally do, that’s about the worst possible punishment we can imagine or wish upon someone. Jesus pretty much trumps any other punishments here. Call someone a fool, you’re in danger of hell.

Which seems a bit harsh in the way we use the word fool The meaning of fool is a bit deeper, as you may have guessed. In the Old Testament wisdom literature there are numerous warning against the fool. The fool is the one who denies God and basically does everything wrong. If there is a way to screw up, the fool, in the OT, will find it. Thus, it became known as the worst insult, the worst possible thing you could say about another person. To call someone a fool was to show utter and complete contempt for a person. They are not just dumb, they are worthless, vile, reprehensible, contemptible. Fools deny God, they insult God, they mock God, they want nothing to do with God. A fool, wants hell- they want nothing to do with God or to be in a relationship with God. Calling someone a fool is like saying “Go to hell.”

Anger can be OK if it’s a righteous anger. Anger directed at a person is bad.
Insulting a person is even worse.
But getting to that place where you have nothing but contempt for another human being, where we want them to go to hell, that is the worst place to be. In fact, when we wish that for someone, Jesus is saying, we are the ones in real danger. When we are that contemptuous, we are living apart from God, we are in a living hell.

Have you ever meet someone truly, truly, deep down, in the marrow of their bones, angry and contemptuous? They have nothing but rage, anger and contempt? Contempt for school, for work, for family, for the church, for the system, for world, for everyone they meet? Haven’t you got the sense, that the one they might hate the most is actually themselves? they they are in a living hell because they’re anger and contempt has literally driven them from God, from his grace, from his love, from his peace, from his beauty, from all pleasure, from all joy, from all peace, from all that is good and right and noble?

Jesus has harsh words about anger and the one who is steeped in anger because being that person, being in that place, is a living hell. It is an awful place to be. And Jesus doesn't want anyone to be stuck there. And some of you are there. Someone you know is there. Someone you love is that lost in their anger. But there is hope. Jesus is inviting us to go deeper. to go to him, to let him begin to root out the rage, to weed out the anger, to free you from the contempt that drives you away from all that’s good, and to that living hell.

When Jesus deals with two specific instances of anger in this passage, one about worship and the other about clearing a debt, what we see in both is the word IMMEDIATELY. There is a sense of incredible urgency in this issue. You don't put off dealing with this. You do not say, Hey, I’m going to deal with my anger issue later. Right now I’m busy. If don’t deal with this NOW, there may not be a later. This isn’t like saying you know, I always wanted to learn how to play the accordion. I’ll just wait until later, I’m busy now. That’s fine, do the world a favor and keep putting that off indefinitely. But if you have some deep seated anger issues, you deal with this IMMEDIATELY. This is your wake up call.

I had a wake up call about this about a year ago. I’m a pretty in control guy. But I get angry and can lose my cool like anyone. I’ve been known to throw a tool across my garage or to wish that my car might spend an eternity separated from the grace of God in a place of fiery torment. I don’t thing cars actually have an eternal soul which would even make that possible, but still, I’ve thought it when it breaks down. But my wake up call was one day when I was playing with the kids and somehow, I think I started it, but we started doing imitations of each other. I immediately said, I’m mommy, go practice the piano, your daddy is so hot, stuff like that. The kids immediately jump in and start imitating each other and what was so funny is that they were really nailing it, I mean, dead on impersonations of each other. Then my Karis, my sweet sweet Karis who sometimes seems like this strangely old soul in the beautiful little child's body, looks at me, and smiles, and says, hey, I’m daddy- “If you kids don’t stop that right now I’m going to go ballistic.”

We all laughed, because I know I’ve said that when i start to get angry with the kids. But at that moment, i knew, I may not lash out in fits of anger, i may not even say angry hurtful words, but often enough, I find myself getting angry, and in that rising anger, I would say to the kids, I’m going to go ballistic. I feel like I’m going to lose my temper. I feel the top ready to explode.

And that night I said, you know, I still have anger. There’s a monster lurking down there in me, and you know, I don’t even want to be the guy who has that feeling like I could explode in anger. If if I don’t do it, I don;t want to even feel it. I don’t want to be the dad who doesn’t know how to deal with children that misbehave and has to say, I’m going to lose it. Because really, kids will misbehave. They will need discipline, but it’s in those moments of discipline and correction that they need to see that I’m not reacting in anger, but that I’m reacting in love.

Anyways, that’s my deal. That was my wake-up call. I don’t want my kids to see any hint of rage, anger, contempt, losing control. They need more than a dad who says I don’t want to lose my cool. They need a dad who keeps his cool, and does everything out of love and grace. That’s how deep I want to go.

If you have an anger issue and you know the root of it, then you need to go immediately to that root. That’s what Jesus says in his two examples. If it’s about a person, or something a person has done, go to that person now. Like the text says, go before you even come back to worship. Go and do whatever is possible for you to do to make that situation right. Do what you have to do be free from that anger. If you can pinpoint it, that’s great, that’s actually a blessing, because now you can do something about it.

Maybe you can’t go to that person. They passed away or that situation is long over, you can’t go back or get those years back. Go to God, cast your burdens on him, for he cares for you, the bible says. Tell God what happened. Tell God how you were hurt. Or tell God how you messed up. Talk to God about this thing that has grown inside of you that his beastly and ugly and ready to blow. Tell God to take it away. Not even a hint. Free you from that HULK that rages beneath the surface.

Maybe you’re angry today, and you don’t know why exactly. You’re not sure where it comes from. Then you just need to ask God to do some heart surgery. You just need to pray to God to get in there and do his thing.

Last week I called this deep religion. It’s religion that actually gets beyond religion. It’s Jesus telling us and teaching us that relationships are more important than our outward religious expression. Our relationship with God and with people is what really most important. In fact, Jesus goes so deep in this first issue, that he says I don’t really care about your religion if your relationships are all screwed up. If you have a messed up relationship because of something you did, and if you remember in the middle of worship, you should get up, go, and make it right. That was UNBELIEVABLE in Jesus day. Nothing was more important to religious folks than making their offering of worship. Jesus says, something deeper matters more- your relationships matter more. This is deep religion. This is something you have to deal with if we are going to go any deeper into a life that pleases God, a life that God can use.

I want to end by giving you the chance to do something about your anger IMMEDIATELY. We are going to pray. And if you need to pray this, just follow along in your heart. I'll go slow. Go with me. Then go from here and do what you have to do to deal with your anger.

MANIFESTO- Week 4

Many of us are familiar with the name Leo Tolstoy, most notably the masterpieces, War and Peace, and Anna Karenina. But to be honest, few of are probably familiar with his books. I must confess, I only read the abridged version of War and Peace when it was assigned to me in college- reading the whole book is out of my pay scale. Tolstoy is remembered and studied as one of the greatest novelists of all time, period. And what is so fascinating to so many was his radical conversion to Christianity. That conversion was so dramatic that Tolstoy became known as a Christian literalist- one who literally tried to keep and live our the teachings of Jesus. This lead to his stance against violence, embracing pacifism, giving away his wealth, becoming an wandering ascetic at the end of his life, and even to embrace the title of a “Christian anarchist.”

Here’s what so important for us- no work had more effect on Tolstoy’s life and belief more than the very text we are studying, Matthew 5-7, the sermon on the mount, or what we are calling our Christian MANIFESTO. If one of the greatest minds in the world thought these were the greatest words every written, then we might want to consider them. In his last great novel, Resurrection, published in 1900, Tolstoy tells the story of Prince Nekhlyudov, who is openly recognized as a a portrait of himself. Towards the end of the novel Nekhlyudov re-reads the sermon on the mount, and his life is forever changed. For in the words of the sermon he finds not exaggerated and impossible demands, but rather, a new order of human life, attained for us in Jesus Christ, and attainable by us when our lives are in Jesus Christ. He writes...

“That night an entirely new life began for Nekhlyudov, not so much because he had entered into new conditions of life but because everything that happened to him from that time on was endowed with an entirely different meaning for him. How this new chapter of his life will end, the future will show.”

That is what I am praying will happen to all of us- a conversion of the same magnitude of Prince Nekhlyudov. That our lives would be endowed with an entirely new meaning and purpose and hope for the future because of what Jesus offers us and teaches us. Tolstoy got what Jesus was offering to us- not just a new list of rules, not just new conditions, but an entirely new way to live. A way of life that STARTS by putting our faith in Jesus Christ. A way of life that continues in obedience to Jesus Christ.

Let me state it this way- the life and faith described in the MANIFESTO is on one level not attainable, but neither is it unattainable. Yeah, I just contradicted myself. First, when we come to the demands of this sermon, love your enemy, do not look on a woman lustfully, and so on, we have to conclude, that we can’t measure up. We can’t do this perfectly. We will find the moral demands of the message so demanding that we throw up our arms in despair. Many have done just this when trying to fulfill the sermon on their own strength. It can lead to defeat, despair and depression.

And it’s almost like in that moment of despair the light bulb turns on and we say oh, that’s the point- we can’t, Jesus can. I’m not perfect, Jesus is. Jesus can do this. That’s why Jesus says first, come to me, then I will help you live this way. I will be with you every step of the way as you begin a life-long journey to live like this. Jesus is the source of our life and faith, the Sermon is course of our life in Jesus.

Jesus is the source, the sermon is the course. Say that with me...

Jesus is the source of life. He is he living Word the bible says, he shows us God, he opens the door to a relationship with God. When Tolstoy got this, it changed everything, it was like a light turned on and everything from that day was filled with new meaning and purpose and power. His whole perspective had changed to a Kingdom of heaven perspective. Countless other men and women have experienced this transformation. For some its radical, it’s almost instantaneous. For others, we are in it for the long haul, it’s one step, one degree, one bit at a time. But when it happens, things are different.

That’s why it so important to keep in the flow of the MANIFESTO and to embrace this a a progression. After today we are deep into the MANIFESTO, so this is the last time until the end that I’m going to be doing a recap. Now this is easy to remember:

First, the invitation to be a part of the kingdom of heaven.
Then the ironic blessings of the kingdom of heaven.
Then the influence of the the kingdom of heaven.

Just before chapter 5, Jesus begins his public ministry and it is characterized by one big idea- “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Repent, turn, open your eyes, open your ears, open your mind, the kingdom of heaven is standing right in front of you, so close you can touch it. Jesus is saying- I am the source- turn to me, come to me, and you actually come into a new way of being, a new life. It’s life in me. It’s where I rule and reign. It’s the kingdom of heaven! That’s what it means to repent and put our faith in Jesus. We come to him as the source.

People came to him, and kingdom things happened in their lives- healing, hope, wholeness, freedom. So the followed him, and then he began to teach them, Matthew 5:1-2 they went up the mountain, Jesus sat and began to teach, the first thing he teaches- who is blessed? The great news- it has nothing to do with your age, race, sex, economic demographic, IQ, profession, or lack of any profession. In fact, who is blessed- it’s just about everybody you didn’t expect. It’s everyone that the world says are losers. It’s everyone who can say, Jesus, you are the source. The blessed announcements are amazing. LEARN THESE...

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Get these ironic blessing of the kingdom in you so that your perception of the blessed life can be endowed with new meaning!

Then, third, the influence of the kingdom of heaven- it’s what we talked about last week- it’s like salt and light. It’s like salt that gets in us and saves us from rot and flavors us for life. It’s light light that goes our from our lives, revealing the kingdom, revealing life, revealing Jesus. It’s you. When Jesus gets into you and saves you, you become part of his saving mission to get into people lives. WHen Jesus gets into you, you become light to shine in all the dark places of our world. It’s amazing what Jesus offers us here. He says you blessed freaks and geeks, you blessed people of mine, you are going to be the ones to change the world. You will change the world, but first, you must understand that I am the source. I am the source of the kingdom of heaven.

Now, Jesus is gonna get into it. Invitation- Ironic blessings- Influence. Now the Importance of the law as it will show us the course of life. Matthew 5:17-20...

17"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

What Jesus has said is so radical, so transformative, so paradigm shifting that it runs an immediate and present risk. The risk of missing the whole point. Life is like that sometimes- we call it missing the forest for the trees. We have a way of getting wrapped up into the bit and pieces sometimes, and incredibly, we can then miss the whole point. Jesus knows this. He knows that what he has done by offering an open invitation to experience the kingdom of heaven, to become a part of the kingdom of heaven, can be radically misunderstood. So he wants to make two things very clear to us- his relationship to the law and prophets (17-18), and our relationship to the law and prophets (19-20).

What is Jesus’ relationship to the law- he is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. the law showed the people how to live in a relationship with God. The prophets told of the day when God would come in the flesh to redeem his people. This is what Jesus does. He is the fulfillment of the law in that he lived by the law without fault or failure. People looked at jesus, they said his life looks very different than ours. They concluded, that because they were trying to follow the law that jesus must have abandoned the law of God. But it was just the opposite- jesus was saying my life looks different from you NOT because I don;t do the law. Rather, it’s because I’m the only one whose truly keeping the law. I’m the one fulfilling the law perfectly, unlike anyone else ever has or could. Thus, he is the fulfillment of the prophets- the promise that God would send his messiah, his son, the one who would offer us salvation and offer us life.

What is our relationship to the law and the prophets? When we are in a relationship with Jesus, then by default we have some relationship now with the law and prophets. The law and prophets still teach us the course of a life in relationship with God, and with our neighbors. What is our big quote for the day- Jesus is the source, his message is the course.

Many of the people listening to Jesus had gotten so wrapped up in the trees, that they forgot the forest. One group in particular, the Pharisees, got so wrapped up in the letters of the law that they began to add their own laws to make sure they kept the laws. They lost the spirit of the law Jesus would say later in his ministry. They forgot the forest.

What is the forest- it’s remember the whole point and purpose of the law. The law was given to the people of God to guide them in how to live in relationship with God. Let’s go way back to the start- Remember, the people were enslaved. They cried out to God for freedom, for salvation, for deliverance. God heard their cry and called Moses to lead them into the promised land. They got to the promised land. The people cried out again, feed us, give us water, teach us how to live, and so God called Moses to Mount Sinai, and he gave him the first laws, the ten commandments as we call them.

What is the context now of the law, what is the forest? - it is given by the God who has established his love for his people and his desire to be in a relationship with them. How do the commands start- I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, you shall have no other gods before me. God is saying understand this- I have come into a relationship with you. You are my people. I am your God. I saved you from slavery. I’ve provided for all your needs. You’ve cried out for me to tell you what to do, how to live, how to have this relationship with me. And I’ve listened. First law- real simple- no other gods. Just be faithful to me. Be faithful to our relationship.

It’s all about relationship. The law is given to those in relationship with God. In the same way that we give our own laws to those with whom we are in relationship. I have rules for my children. Why? Because they are my children. Because I Iove them. I give them rules not to be an oppressive killjoy, though they sometimes think I am. I give them laws because they are my kids and I love them more than I love myself. I make them eat right and go to bed because I love them. I make them learn to read because I love them. I give them chores to do because I love them.

What happens when they break the rules? Do they cease being my children? No. Do I love them a less? Maybe, I mean my love is unconditional, but it can be temperamental. But really, I don’t stop loving them. They are my kids. I am their father. When they break the rules they don’t stop being my kids. They’re just not living into the relationship in the best way.

Jesus tells us, don’t lose the forest for the trees, but also, don’t lose the trees for the forest. I’m not destroying the law, I’m fulfilling the law. And through me, I want you to live by the law as well. In fact, I’m going to explain and tighten up the spirit of the law now.

We need to see the parallel here: God gave Moses and the people the law after he had established his relationship with them. he had proven his love, proven his power. Proven himself. the people ASKED to be directed in how to live in the promised land and in relationship with God. He answered them. he gave them the commands.

Jesus has proven himself to the people. He has brought to them the power of the kingdom of heaven. he has invited them to enter into a relationship with himself. the people listened, they followed. They asked how to live. Jesus begins to teach them. He begins to show them how to live out of this new paradigm, this new relationship.

Jesus is going to hit 6 things that had immense relevance to his people. These are six areas of live to which there were laws attached. They might be far removed from us because we have advanced so much as a culture and as people. Still, he deals with these archaic things of:

• Anger and murder
  
• Lust and marital infidelity
  
• Divorce
  
• Oaths and lying
• Revenge
• Finally, making peace in a war-torn world
  

Oh, wait a second- these are some of the most timely and relevant issues facing all our lives! Jesus wants us to begin to live like him because it makes a most immediate and practical difference in our lives. These are not arbitrary and irrelevant rules. This is about changing lives at the deepest possible level.

Counselors today talk about Deep Psychology, or depth psychology. This was the school of thought developed by people like Sigmund freud and Carl Jung. In the most basic definition, depth psychology says that our psyche is made up of conscious and unconscious parts. I order to understand our behavior and cognitive approach to life, we much get deep into this unconscious or sub-consious. But more, there is healing power found in uncovering and reveal our deeper, sub-conscious level motives.

In a similar way of thinking, but this is something else entirely, Jesus is going to push us towards a king of deep religion. A religion that goes so deep it’s gets in us, it changes us from the inside out. It changes not just what we do, but who we are. Not just out outward, but the inner heart and motivations.

This week- no fun, fancy tight ending. Rather, I'm intentionally leaving it messy. You need to read the six sections of Matthew 5. Then wrestle with it. Which one is touching your life, or the life of someone you love. Focus on that section. Work it out...

MANIFESTO- Week 3

DISCLAIMER: my manuscripts are written with the intention of preaching. There will be spelling errors and grammatical mistakes! But I hope you'll still enjoy!
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Malcolm Gladwell has written some great stuff. I just read his latest book, “Outliers: The Story of Success.” Every hockey player will want to read the first chapter- it will blow your mind! What is an outlier? It is defined as something that is situated away from or classified differently from a main or related body. 2. A statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample. Hold onto that first part- “classified differently from a related body.”

He begins his book with a story, and one particularly fascinating to me- for it tells the story of a town not far from where I grew up in Pennsylvania. In 1882 a group of 11 men left Roseto, Italy for New York. They landed and migrated west until they found work in a slate quarry near Bangor, PA. The follow year 15 more Rosetans joined them. by 1894 some 1200 Rosetans were applying for passports- entire streets in Roseto were left abandoned, whole communities were virtually transplanted to PA.

The Rosetans were buying up land in the rocky Hillside of PA. They called their little town New Italy, but eventually just started calling it Roseto, since nearly everyone was from Roseto. Soon there was a vibrant Church, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and schools. The people built homes and raise animals, opened shops, bakeries, garment factories and the like. Walking down the street in 1900 you would have thought you were in Roseto Italy. Few would have heard about Roseto if not for Stewart Wolf.

Through a serendipitous series of events Wolf came to study the town and people of Roseto for for one almost off handed, but remarkable observation- nobody from Rosetos under the age of 65 ever seemed to have heart disease. Wolf investigated and discovered that sure enough, the death rate in Roseto was 35% lower than to be expected. There was no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction, little crime, no one was on welfare, no one got ulcers. The people were living to a ripe old age, then simply dying of old age. They thought it had to do with the diet. They soon discovered that the people of Roseto did in fact have a remarkable diet. 41% of the average persons calories came from fat. They had switched from olive oil to lard, thin crust to bread dough, enjoyed meats and deserts in copious amounts! If anything, the only visible problem was obesity! These folks should have been dropping like flies.

But as they studied the townspeople they began to take note of some differences in life in Roseto- people were always visiting each other and bringing food. Many homes were filled with three generations represented under one roof, crowded by our standards. Nearly the entire town celebrated Mass together every week. They noted 22 civic organizations. There was an egalitarian ethos in the area whereby the wealthy did not flaunt their wealth, the needy were brought into the norm, and everyone respected their elders. The people of Roseto were healthy for not other reason, that they could observe, than they were from Roseto.

Roseto was an Outlier. It did not fit the mold. It was outside the main body. It opened the eyes of the medical field to begin looking not just at an individuals health, but the health of a community, and the role of the community on health.

Let me propose to you, piggy backing on Gladwell’s paradigm, that we as Christians, both individually, and as a community of believers, are called by God to be Outliers. To be in the world like everyone else is in the world, but in some significant ways we are to different, unique, set apart.

Our first week I ended with what I thought was a very profound statement designed to make you think. I said that just about the WORST thing anyone could say to someone who claims to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus is, you are just like everyone else. That is fundamental betrayal of what God is trying to do in our lives. That totally missed the the point of being blessed to be a blessing. That totally missed the point of what God has be doing ever since he called Abram. He told us we are to be a blessing to the world. Like Roseto, set apart and different in a way that is good. He has been calling people to be different, to be set apart, to be holy, to be Outliers.

But what exactly does that difference look like? How are we to be Outliers? How to we relate to the main body, the world? How are we set apart, and what should set us apart? People have been trying to figure this out for literally centuries.

Let me give you another lesson from another writer, Reinhold Neibuhr. He wrote a book that has framed this discussion for over half a century now. His book, Christ and Culture, took a serious look at the way Christians have understood and interpreted their place, their role, in the world.

He sets up a framework with the two extremes: At one end he places the extreme Outliers- the “Christ against Culture” approach. This is the extreme form of Christian separatist movements. Into this camp he would place such movements at the monastics, who lived separately from much of the world. Post reformation he would place in this group the anabaptists, the Mennonites and Amish. Basically, these are groups of Christians who by design or over time withdrawn from much of what we call the dominate culture around them, and create their own culture and society.

At the other end we find the “Christ of Culture” camp. Perhaps we’d call these guys the “Inliers” totally a part of the system. In this group being a Christian, or a part of the church, is so intertwined with the dominant culture, that one would hardly be able to distinguish between the two, nor should they even really try, because the culture is in fact the church, the people of God. This camp is associated with the mainline churches, or perhaps we might say, though it’s now a very loaded word, liberal church.

In between he has three camps- “Christ above Culture,” close to the Christ against Camp, but sees a place for more integration. In the middle is “Christ and Culture in Paradox.” This camp says I can see value in both a separate church culture, and in integrating with the world. I have to hold that in a paradoxical tension. The next, and the one the Niebuhr is biased toward, and the one he wants us to be biased toward, is “Christ the Transformer of Culture.” The fully devoted Christ follower is called to make a different in the world by have and transformative effect. We are called to a ministry of reconciliation in the world. We are the body of Christ, the ambassadors of Christ. Neibuhr stacks the deck in favor of this position.

But after a half century of analysis and discussion we can readily see how subjective this paradigm is to our cultural experience. In fact, we see that we must all see ourselves, and the church, on the spectrum. For example- when is it that many Christians withdraw from society and come against culture? When the dominate culture is against the church. Why did the anabaptists withdrawn from the world? It has something to do with their beliefs and interpretation of the bible, but practically speaking, it has more to do with the fact that they were being hunted down, persecuted and killed. I’ll speak for myself to say that if the authorities were trying to kill me for my beliefs, I may tend to withdraw from the culture.

But now let’s look at the other end, what happens when some Christian value or ideal becomes integrated into public life? Do we say, well, it’s a value of ours to withdraw from culture, so even though the culture is pretty good, let’s just leave because that’s what we do. No! When we see the church making a profound difference within the dominate culture we can celebrate! When the culture says let’s care for the needy, the church should say right on! When the culture says let’s support honest pay for an honest day of work, let's figure out how to structure the economy that way!

The point is this- and this is what most everyone agrees on now- Neibuhr is right- we have to transform the culture. Let’s just all embrace that title. But now let’s give some space and grace to understand that the way we will transform culture is going to look very different for different people, in different places and at different times. Some will be called to be integrated into the culture, transforming things from the inside out. At the same time someone might stand just outside what we would call the dominant culture, proclaiming an alternative culture and way of being and doing things. Maybe it’s not about labeling or avoiding the extremes. Maybe it’s about agreeing that the best way to transform the culture and the world around us is to approach it from as many angles as possible. Is there a place for the Christ follower in politics? IN most every case, yes! Is there a place for a house of prayer set up on the edge of the culture for people to nurture a relationship with God in quiet? I sure hope so. Will different Christ followers lean toward different expressions? I sure hope so! Can the blessed life in Christ look different for different people? Of course.

This is what it boils down to- we do the stuff Jesus does when we become the people Jesus invites us to become. Jesus will now make this abundantly clear. He wants us to become a certain kind of people that bring transformation where we go. The kind of people he wants us to be- salt and light.

Let me read out passage for today...(Matthew 5:13-16)
¹³"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

¹⁴"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Salt and light make a difference in people’s lives and in the world. Salt and light are necessary regardless of the time, the culture, the economy. Men and women, young and old, rich and poor, they all need salt and light. And everything that salt and light touches is in fact transformed.

Salt had two primary qualities for which it virtually changed life in the ancient world- first, it halted decay, and second, it added flavor. It is hard for us now to imagine the almost magical power of salt when it was discovered that it could actually keep meat from rotting. Until then, it was hand to mouth. But with the discovery of salt, all of the sudden what was once doomed to rot, was now preserved. The Romans used to pay their soldiers in salt, which is why to this day we call it a salary- same root word. They started salting their vegetables, which is why we call it a salad. And when someone is comes to Jesus, and gives their life to him, when we come to him and say Jesus, I have sinned, I have done wrong, I feel like a rotten person and I can’t seem to save myself, we come to Jesus and he offers us... a salt lick. No, salvation. Our lives are saved once they are in him. Like a chunk of rotting meat, the decay is halted, and our lives are saved. We experience salvation. Isn’t that wild- I’ll bet most of you never thought about it that way.

Not only does salt preserve, it adds taste. It adds flavor. It brings spice to life. And that the awesome side effect of having our lives in Jesus, not only do we have salvation, but now we are all so savory! We taste good! I remember as a kid hearing my mom say I could just eat you up! I thought that was so weird. Then I had kids, and now there are times when I literally want to eat them! They look so good to me, they make my mouth water, I’ve actually bitten my kids on occasion! That’s how the world should see us when we are being like salt in the world. We should look that tasty and good!

And so Jesus is saying that all of you can bring a quality of preservation into the rot of this world. We can bring flavor into the bland existence of so many who are looking for life. But let me add this observation- too much salt starts to become a bad thing. There are few things worse than an over-salted meal. There are times when we get too wrapped up with other Christians and in only church stuff. It is possible to be too salty. When that happen, it’s time to dissipate the salt again.

And that’s one of the most amazing properties of salt. You put fresh water and salt water together and what are you going to get- salt water. It will penetrate and permeate everything. Thus we must constantly be pouring ourselves out in fresh ways, in untouched and untapped areas. And when we do, we can’t help but bring the salvation and flavor of life in Jesus.

Light transforms as well. In fact, it the very nature of light to change things. I learned about the power of light through caving. I used to take students to a cave all the time. What I discovered is that students were less afraid of crawling underground in in dirty tight, cold places, than they were afraid of the dark. As long as you had your light, you were fine. But when I would have them turn off their lights, they would freak out. My favorite object lesson was simply this- to have them turn out their lights. To be consumed with the darkness for a few minutes, then I’d light a match. It was amazing the transforming power of the light. One tiny little match, and I would instantly have everyone's attention. You could not help but look at that light. It was salvation, it was hope, it was a way out. It meant everything. And that’s the power of the light- darkness has to flee. It can’t overcome the light. Even a tiny light, in a dark place wins the battle.

They other lesson I loved from caving, was the final revelation of light. After a few hours of caving, coming out into the daylight, the students would then see for themselves what I knew all along- they were filthy! After crawling around all that time they would be covered in mud from head to toe- they were gross.

And now what I’m NOT saying is that everyone without Christi is dirty and gross. I’m saying that when Christ’s light shines on us, we see ourselves for what we truly are- we are in need of cleansing. We need to be washed clean.

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Jerusalem, the holy city, is perched on a hill. It cannot be hidden. And that’s the point of the location. It is to be a beacon of light to the world. You don;t light a lamp and cover it up- you raise it up, you want the light to penetrate all the darkness. Light a match lit in the dark, it will draw people in. And once people are in, when the are in the presence of the light, they will naturally see their need for cleansing. They will see that they need to cleansing and forgiveness of Jesus Christ in their lives.

Jesus closes this thought by saying in the same way let you light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Jesus begins his message with the blessed announcements. These describe for the the essential character of the fully-devoted Christ follower. Then he moves into these metaphors which describe our influence in the world. And when we are the kind of influence on the world that Christ calls us to be, when we are as salt and light, the world around can’t help but give glory NOT to us, but to God in heaven.

We should pause on this progression long enough to be awed by it’s brilliance. We come to Jesus, we sit at his feet, we give our lives to him, and he transforms our character. We become poor in spirit, we mourn the death and pain in the world, we humble ourselves, we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we are made merciful, pure, peacemakers, we are even persecuted for our pursuit of the kingdom. With transformed hearts and lives, with Christ in us, we are different kinds of people. We are like salt. we are like light. What does salt and light do- we transform everything we come in contact with. We save what is lost to decay. We flavor what is bland. We penetrate the darkness. We attract like moths to a fire. We reveal what really is.

We’re gonna have some fun to close this one- the ushers are going to hand out some glow sticks. Please resist the urge to break them! We are going to turn out the lights. We’ll pause for a moment and let the darkness consume us- then I’m going to say a prayer and we’ll break out sticks. The band will play a song, and we’ll let our lights shine!

MANIFESTO- Week 2

Last Sunday we kicked off our MANIFESTO series by looking at the last part of Matthew 5-7, what is commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. The point was simple enough- we need to put this stuff into practice. It' snot just about head knowledge; it's about heart knowledge, or the kind of knowing that had profound effect on our doing.

This is so important because most of us already suffer not from lacking of knowing, but lack of doing what it is we knwo we should do. Let me illustrate.
This weekend I took out our pop-up campuer and set up for the family. Pop-up camping is an interesting thing.
On one level it’s camping. You’re outside, you’re ruffing it, you have the outdoors experience. On the other hand, pop-up camping is like our normal, modern world- we pop this thing up some we can have a home base, a bed to sleep on, electricity, and the truly weird thing is that they pack us in like sardines in a can- I mean, they fit in 10 people per square foot in these camp grounds.

I’ve never known completely if I LOVE pop-up camping, or if it’s the dumbest thing in the world that I’ve ever been a part of. All I know is I was swindled into buying my in-laws piece of garbage old pop-up camper and now I feel obligated to engage in this ritual 2 weeks out of every summer!

Anyways, one of the things about pop-up camping is you have to set the rules. One of them is, don’t run in and our of the camper or you will break something. So I tell the kids- be careful. You’ll break something. I know you kids, I know you can’t contain your energy, nor can this old piece of crap camper. Don’t play in here or you’ll break something.
I tell Robin, you don't understand the nuances of how to set up a camper and use it. Please Robin, don’t mess around with the stuff in the camper or you’ll break something. You’re in charge of the home, I’m in charge of the camper, because I understand it and I won’t break anything.

So guess who’s messing around in the camper and ends up breaking the the overhead light the first night!
(If it's not totally obvious- it was me!)

It’s not a problem of knowing, it’s a problem of doing. Or rather, not doing in this case- not being careful enough not to break something. And so goes the basic human condition- it’s not a problem of not knowing, it’s a problem with doing the things we know we should do, not doing the things we know we should avoid, being the kind of people we want to be.

And that was basically the point last week, and the whole point of this series. It’s not just about us learning and knowing more stuff. It’s about us being and doing things different. Actually putting this Jesus stuff into practice, because it’s only in practice that this stuff truly matters, that it truly makes a difference.

But like we talked about- it a good kind of different. It s tough kind of different, but it’s the kind of different that we need to be, that the world needs us to be, and that, and here’s the thing, the kind of different that Jesus can let us be IF we will do the things he calls us to do.

So, with that understood, that the whole point is putting into practice so we can be a different kind of person. And there’s one word that captures the essence of the difference... Blessed.

Jesus begins his message with this one simple sentence:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Question for your reflection- If you could be anything, what would it be? There’s the obvious: Wealthy, famous, powerful, beautiful, popular, super smart, super strong, musical, artistic...
No matter what else you might want to be or do, you would want to be blessed! Now what do we think is blessed? Probably a lot of those same things- wealthy, successful, popular, stuff like that. But what I’m hoping for today is that we begin to expand our view of what the blessed life really is about, and really looks like. I think that the blessed life is both far deeper than we normally think, but it is also far more wonderful than any of us have fully experienced. The things we might associate with the blessed life are far too shallow, and far too short of where God actually wants to take us.

What is blessed? In the Greek it is simply pronounced "Makarios." Sometimes it is translated as happy, and in truth, and we should here in this blessing a certain sense of happiness. Some have then said that this is something like Jesus’ theory of happiness, that if one can simply embrace these qualities as their emotional attitude, they will be a happy person. And you know, I think that view is not entirely wrong. I have nothing against being happy. But a blessed life goes deeper than just being happy.

We see reading through the list that each "blessed" is even connected with a reward. The poor in Spirit get the Kingdom of heaven. Those who mourn are comforted. The meek inherit the earth...

The blessings also have both a present and future tense. We get a foretaste of what is to come. We experience in part what we will later know is full. We get a bit of the kingdom now, and we get it’s fullness later.

So let's go deeper- this idea of blessing was part of culture and world view of the bible. In Genesis, when God calls a man named Abram to be the father of a new beginning, a new people, he calls him to be the father of a new blessing. God said, “I will make you in a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing... and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Later, in the book of Numbers, written some 1500 years BEFORE Jesus, this promise of blessing becomes a part of the rhythm of life for God’s people. God instructs the Priests on how they are to bless the people, by pronouncing over them:
The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.

They would have heard this literally thousands of times. But by all accounts they people did not see themselves as have seen or obtained the blessing. In fact, nothing further could seem like their peoples experience. Driven out of the Promised Land, exiled to Babylon, exiled to Assyria, returning only to be overrun again, kept under Roman rule. Their lives seemed anything but blessed.

And so, when Jesus opened his mouth and began to speak, he was about to speak to them about blessing. Only now, the priestly blessing would be different. Now it was not to ask for God’s blessing, but to give God’s blessing to them. Not just to ask for God to turn his face toward them, but to turn his face toward them, to show them the very face of God, to show them his grace, to give them his peace.

We can’t grasp the full power of these words unless we grasp the context in which they are spoken, and they are spoken as nothing less than the fulfillment, the very embodiment of the priestly blessing with which they were all so familiar. And so when Jesus opens his mouth and the first word he speaks to them is this word blessed, it would have, in one sense been the most familiar and expected thing he could have possibly said- Well, sounds like Jesus is about to offer us the priestly blessing as a way to start his message.

But while it had the familiar ring of blessing about, it was also something they perhaps had never heard before. For immediately it becomes clear that finally someone was not just going to speak a blessing over them, but was about to explain to them what the blessed life actually looked like.

And so in one sentence, with the very first worlds that come from the lips of Jesus as he sits before this crowd gathered on a mountainside, Jesus turns the world upside down. He begins the difficult process of turning the vision and values of the world upside down, inside out, and on it’s relative rear. One sentence and the Divine Conspiracy to change the world is launched and set in motion. These words launch us into radical new way of seeing God and our participation in life with Him. It’s is our invitation to this divine conspiracy to bring the kingdom of heaven into our lives and into our world. For that is the blessing we all long for, whether we know it or not, and many do not know it, what we all long for, what we all need, is to experience, to taste, to touch, to see and be a part of the kingdom of God- that is the blessed life.

This is the key- the blessed life is intrisically tied to the kingdom of heaven.
What does Jesus even mean, the kingdom of Heaven?

This is perhaps the single most important statement of Jesus for us to understand. This is the heart and soul of the message of Jesus. Jesus taught on the kingdom of Heaven, and it’s counterpart, the Kingdom of God, more than anything else. Let’s take a step back. Jesus goes to his cousin John the baptist, who, we may have guessed by his name, was baptizing people. Jesus is baptized and at that moment we have an amazing trinity moment- the trinity being this understanding that God exists as one being in three persons- Father, Son Jesus, and Holy Spirit. Jesus goes into the water, the Holy Spirit visibly comes upon Jesus, and the Fathers voice from heaven says this is my son whom I love in him I am well pleased. What happens it that the kingdom of heaven actually manifests and comes upon Jesus.

Jesus is then lead out into the desert for forty days where is prays, fasts, and ultimately tempted by Satan to ditch this whole plan, the whole divine conspiracy to change the world. Jesus actually enters the kingdom of Hell. It's like the showdown in the desert- the kingdom of heaven vs. teh kngdom of hell.

Jesus comes through this temptation with flying colors, and he begins to preach.
And his message basically always boils down to one big idea. One major point-

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

That word repent means turn. Turn around, turn from whatever else it is you are doing, turn from the bad things you are doing or thinking or planning, turn from even the good things you are doing, because you have to see that the kingdom of heaven, the place where God is and where God rules and where God meets his people, it’s near. It’s so near you can see it if you want. You can reach and and touch it if you desire. It’s so near that if you turn towards me, you will be in it and a part of it.

The amazing thing is that people actually did. they turned from what they were doing, where they were going, what they were about, and they followed Jesus. Jesus call fishermen to follow him, and they did. Soon they knew why. In the verse just before chapter 5, the verse that tell us why a multitude of people followed Jesus up a mountain to learn from him, was because as he went throughout the land preaching this message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near, that is was so near in fact, that people began to experience it as they experienced Jesus- the sick became healthy. those where were suffering found relief. The demon possessed were set free. the crippled walked. The kingdom was so near in Jesus that people naturally began to turn towards him, and in so doing they found their lives were being blessed in amazing, transforming ways.

To understand the power and importance of this message, we need to understand something about kingdoms. Now modern communicators will say that kingdom language is really outdated, out of our realm of experience, and out of touch. I’m not so convinced. Has anyone here every heard of a kingdom, or a king or a queen? Yeah, we may not live under the rule of a monarchy, but we get this! I have three kids, and I think my kids get what a kingdom is. My girls love to play princess. My son loves it when I call him prince, but I think they are all striving for crown in my home. They would love to be in charge. To make a decree, and have it happen. To snap their fingers and have servants come running. To send anyone foolish enough to disobey them to the gallows. They would love that kind of power, of control , or reach in their lives.

Our kingdoms are those areas, those places, in which our word is law, our will is done, and things are just the way we want them.

This is the message of Jesus- repent for the kingdom of heaven is near, so near, it can collide with your life right now if you have eyes to see, ears to hear, and faith in your heart. The kingdom is at hand, reach out and touch it.

Ultimately Jesus says I am the king, the Christ, and my kingdom is at hand. The language of the kingdom of heaven is written all over the manifesto and the message of Jesus. In passage after passage of the sermon on the mount we will hear Jesus speak of the Kingdom. He will say to whom it belongs, he will speak of the righteousness of those who enter in, he will tell of of the rewards of heaven, he will teach us to pray God will be done on earth as it is in heaven, he will encourage us to store up our treasures in heaven, over and over he will speak of God as our Father in heaven. And he begins his message by tells us to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs.

It is the poor in spirit. The kingdom of heaven is for those who are poor in spirit.

This is the wonderful flip, the twist, the surprise ending, or in this case beginning, to life in the kingdom. What does it mean to be poor? What is poverty? Poverty may be largely a state of mind and attitude. For there are many who claim to be poor, but who are rich by the world’s standards. There are many who consider themselves well off, but others look at them and think to themselves, dag, they are barely getting by. Poverty is in many many ways a state of mind and attitude and very relative to our place in the world.

But there is such thing as true poverty, and being truly poor. Can I just remind everyone that poverty sucks. Being poor, truly poor, not relatively or subjectively poor, means you don’t have the means to get what you need.
It means you need food, but you can’t get any.
You need clothes, but you can get any.
You need shelter, but you can’t get any.
Being poor means you don’t have options.
It means you don;t have opportunities.
It means that you don't have the means, the means to get anything, change anything.
Being truly poor means that you are truly unable to alter your life situation.
You are unable to help yourself.

Jesus says that when you get to the point where you are poor in spirit, then yours is the kingdom of heaven. When you are at the place in your spirit where you can finally say, I have no options, I have no opportunities, I have no where to go or turn.

You are poor in spirit when you realize that you can not save your soul.
You are poor in spirit when you can’t make yourself good enough.
You are poor in spirit when you can will yourself to be a better person.
You are poor in spirit when you realize you have no resources, no options, no opportunities.

And let me tell you, there is nothing glamorous about it. It’s not fun. It’s not exciting.
It’s simply that moment, or that ongoing revelation, and it can happen when we are young, or old, it can be forgotten and remembered and re-experienced throughout life, it’s that realization that I can’t save my self. I am utterly, helplessly, desperately poor in my spiritual resources, in my means to heaven.

Here is the thing about being poor in spirit- it’s broad enough to include everybody, but exclusive enough to make us wonder, does that describe me?

Everybody, anywhere, at anytime, any age, in any season, from any culture, from any race, from any income bracket or educational pedigree, either sex, anybody can be poor in spirit. But everyone of us must look to our hearts and ask if it does in fact describe us.

I am convinced after prayerful study of this passage, the whole sermon on the mount manifesto, of the amazing brilliance of Jesus- really, he is the most brilliant person to ever live, which makes sense as he’s the only person who was also fully God. But specifically here the brilliance, and of course then the imperative importance of this first blessing. For if one does not embrace their true poverty of spirit in standing before the living God, then nothing else in the sermon really matters or applies. To embrace, embody and begin to live the life Jesus will lay out, one must first put their whole life into the hands of Jesus, we must put our poor spirits into his kingdom of heaven.

Then will find ourselves in living in the push and pull of this sermon. The Puritans and Reformers had an expression- the law of God pushes us to Christ to be justified, just as Christ pulls us back to the law he fulfilled to be sanctified. The law of God, these beatitudes, and this whole sermon, must push us to Christ who lived them perfectly, because their is no way we will. WE can’t do it. We can’t achieve it. We can’t get it right. Only Christ can, and does, and so we go to him to be justified, to have our sins forgiven, to be washed clean. But then in Christ we all pulled back to these laws, these beatitudes, this sermon, to do our utmost to live them out.

Now that may sound like complex theology, but it isn’t folks. WE can get this this. WE can do this. Only Jesus fulfills this new law perfectly, so we depend entirely on him for our salvation. But in him, when we are saved, we come to this way of life seeking to live it out to the best of our knowledge, our abilities and as much as the grace of God is given to us. We can not perfectly fulfill and embody these beatitudes. We can’t do it. They are simply too demanding, to altruistic, to much for any mere mortal to bear. WE can’t do it- and so in realizing our own poverty of spirit we are driven to Christ, to cling to him, to hold to him, to call upon him and receive from him our life and salvation.

Then in Jesus we are pulled back to the beatitudes and back to this whole sermon and back to the whole life and message and teachings of Jesus and then we say by grace Jesus my savior and Lord help me to live this way, to keep these teachings, to love you and love my neighbor and love your world this much.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. If you are poor in spirit, and ready to throw in the towel today, I invite to go to Christ.

If you forget everything said and done this morning, and even if those words don’t mean anything to you today, because you don’t feel poor in spirit, or even understand what that means. Don’t forget those words, because someday, all of us, if it hasn’t ever happened to you, all of us will feel utterly, and completely, unable to save ourselves.

And when that day comes, when you know you are not your creator, nor are you your own savior, nor are you the God of the universe- when that moment comes, I want you to be able to say, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

MANIFESTO- Week 1

Matthew 7:24-27
DISCLAIMER- I don't thoroughly edit my messages. I write with the intention to speak. There will be many typos and grammatical errors!

HAPPY Father’s Day! let’s give a shout out to the father’s in the house...
Let me tell you something about being a father that I love- the perfect obedience of my children. How many other father’s here are so happy that your kids always do exactly what you teach and ask of them? I’ve discovered this about kids, its really amazing how easy they are raise. I just tell them exactly what to do, and the do it, without question, without exception ...
I’m telling you, being a parent is SOOOO easy because all I have to do is tell my kids the right thing to do, the best way to live, the safest way to play, the wisest decisions to make- I just download the right information into their little brains and they just instantly DO what is good, best, safe, right and wise! It’s really awesome.

Now how many people are aware that I might not be telling entire truth. My own kids are probably saying, he can’t possibly be talking about us, he must have the whole double life, secret other family or something. Of course I’m not talking about the reality of parenting here. Nor am I talking about the reality of our lives. Because in all our lives, not just the lives of our children, we have an incredible gap between what we know and what we do; what we know would be the best way to live, the right thing to do, the proper response to the situation, the most beneficial attitudes and beliefs and behaviors, and what we actually DO in life.

This is a common human condition that plagues people and institutions. In the business world there is a ton of literature and research that has been done on this knowing/ doing gap. A boss KNOWS that he or she needs to deal with a interpersonal situation at work, but they don’t do it. They just keep putting it off day after day, week after week. A company knows that it has an enormous customer relations issue. The facts are in, the knowledge is there, the remedy is even within their reach, but because of the time, efforts and work that is required, they simply never get around to attending to the issue. It’s not an issue of knowing, it’s an issue of doing; it’s not a knowledge problem, it’s a doing problem.

It’s a parenting issue, it’s a business issue, it’s a people issue, and it’s a spiritual issue. It’s this knowing/doing gap that effects every single person regardless of sex, age, race, culture or belief. Many problems, not all problems, but most I’d say, stem not from a lack of knowledge or information or even the ability to initiate the solution- they stem simply from a lack of doing. Doing the right thing, the wise thing, the best thing, the godly thing, the thing that in the long run that we know we should do.

Now what I’ve just told you I did not make up or just pull out of the air. This is what Jesus teaches us. This comes right out of the bible. It comes right out of the text that we’ll be dealing with all summer long. It’s from Matthew Chapter 7, which is part of a block of teaching found in Matthew chapters 5,6, 7- a section that many of you probably know more commonly as the Sermon on the Mount. A section of teaching from the Bible that we are calling “MANIFESTO.” Or, “The Divine Conspiracy to Change the World.”

A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature, but may also be life stance related. This stuff is about our life stance. But as a life stance, this will effect everything- politics, economics and all of culture. This is a public declaration by Jesus, and it has public and private implications. This passage of scripture, perhaps more poignantly and poetically than any other concise section os the bible, provides for a blue print for the Christian life. It’s like a road map that lays out for us a foundation of Christian belief, behavior, religion and relationships, attitude and ambition in life.

I am so excited about this series I can hardly stand it! I’m chomping at the bit to tell you everything. But before I tell you anything else, I have to start with a warning. My intention with this series is to rock your world. To change your life. To change our church. To change our community. To literally change our world. This is not about downloading more information into your brains. This is about changing the way we do life- our lives, life together as a church, life in our community and our world.

SO here’s the deal, this is your warning, if you don’t want to be changed, don’t come back, or better yet, quietly slip out now. Say you have to got to the bathroom, and run. Just tell the person next to you it was all the coffee you just had, but you need to excuse yourself immediately. IF you like your life just the way it is, don’t come back, because this is intended to change your life. If you’ve got God neatly wrapped up an in a box and you like the way you understand God, don’t come back. If you like your relationships with people just the way it is and you don’t want to go deeper, don’t come back, because this is intended to take you deeper. If you like your attitude toward life, if you like your value system just the way it is, if you have reached your ideal you, your perfect you, if you are perfectly content with you right now, you don’t want to be changed at all- don’t come back. If you like the world just the way it is, if you think the world is just perfectly fine and dandy and and we should just put our world into a holding pattern as is, then don’t come back, because I’m just going to make you mad, because this is going to mess things up.

Now rest assure, I’m not doing this just to mess things up for me for you for us for our world. I’m not setting out to be offensive or controversial, I’m just telling you, that’s part of the nature of what we are going to get into this summer. In fact, I would be shocked, I will be shocked, if some people don't leave Connections because of this study. When Jesus taught this stuff, people heard him, they understood at least in part what he was telling them and asking of them, and many of those people walked away. That was just a simple fact. Thank you Jesus, you made yourself very clear. I think I get what you are saying. Have a nice life, this is not for me.

Now here’s how we are going to approach the manifesto. I’m going to employ a classic teaching methodology here- to begin with the end in mind. I already have. I’ve begun with the end in mind- this series, this manifesto, is not primary about collecting more information, it’s about changing lives, changing the way we do life, the way we think, believe, behave and interact. Jesus goes through this incredible body of teaching. It’s is literally rocking people’s worlds. It is blowing their minds. Jesus, who normally taught so much in the form of story and turning the wrong questions into the right questions, has been amazing clear and direct. Then, when he gets to the end, it’s almost like he can’t help himself. He says, to get this stuff, to really get what I’ve just been talking about, I have to tell you a story. He ended with this, but I want to begin with it, because I’m not as good a teacher as Jesus. I want to start with his ending, so that next week, when we get into the beginning, you can already start to say, oh, I think I know where this is going. He tells this story...

²⁴"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (Matthew 7:24-27)

Everyone here who grew up in a churched home learned a little song that is now going to be stuck in your head the rest of the day. I tried to get the band to do a rocking version of it today, but they said some things can just be done. The wise man builds his house upon the rock. He digs down, he does the work, he thinks about the future, he looks at his present situation, he knows what going to happen, he understands, and he does something about it. The foolish man build his house on the sand. Well duh, he’s an idiot. Everyone knows he’s an idiot. You do not have to be in the construction business to get this one. I can’t even get a beach umbrella to stand up in the sand let alone a house. This is painfully obvious stuff. So what’s the point?

There are two types of people, Jesus says. But they aren’t the two types of people that we probably want to hear. This is what we’d like Jesus to have taught- There were once two men who went to build homes. The one man build his home, and everything went just perfectly, because he built his home in the Caribbean. He built his home and his life was perfect- there was never any storms, never and winds, never and waves, never any bad weather. It was 25 degrees with no oppressive humidity, a slight breeze, just a few clouds in the sky, and it only rained a night when you went to bed and it cooled things off just perfectly so you could sleep at night. The other man build his house in London, Ontario. It snowed half the year. When you thought it was spring, a another storm would hit. When it finally got hot, the humidity was oppressive. Just when summer seems to get good, it was fall again. Yeah, there were a few nice days in there, just enough to keep hope alive, but really, the weather just stunk.

Now everyone who listens to what I say will have life in the Caribbean- perfect, no problems, a Utopian existence for all of your life. That’s what we WANT Jesus to say. But guess what, and in a crazy way this is supposed to be good news for us- all of us build our homes in Canada. He says everyone builds in London, Ontario.

He says that into every person’s life there is going to come storms. There will be rains, winds and waves that come crashing down on each and every one of us. The two kinds of lives are not one with storms, and without storms. The two kinds of people are determined by how you weather those storms. Are you going to be swept away, or are you going to make it through to the other side.

Jesus says I’m not teaching a path to avoid every storm, every problem, every issue of life. I’m teaching you a way to live so that when the storms come, you are going to ride it through. I don’t know if that’s good news for you today, or bad news, but that’s the news folks. That’s what Jesus teaches us. That’s why Jesus taught us. He said I know that into your life is going to comes storms and I want to build for you a foundation so you will stand rock solid. In fact, Jesus says, some of those storms that you face, some of them, they are actually going to come into you life BECAUSE you have believed me, because you have followed me, because you have build your life on me. Because when you really and truly follow and obey me, when you really open your life up to be used by me in the the world, it’s going to change things, and there will be trouble.

Some of you are sailing through good weather right now. You’re a newly wed and life is like one giant extended date, it’s all cupcakes and sprinkles, the only thing you fight about is who loves each other more. You just had a baby and you are amazed at the miracle of life that God has brought into your life. You found a job, you found a house, things are good. Now I’m not being pessimistic here, I’m just telling you the way it is. No matter how clear the skies are now- a storm is on the horizon, and it’s coming your way, and Jesus says there is NO way to avoid it. Into every life there will be storms. Now we can bring a lot of storms into our lives, that is for sure, but I’m talking about the storms that you have no control over. the storm that you didn’t ask for. the storm that hits suddenly, the storm that hits really without reason or explanation. the storm that just happens- those storms come into all our lives. What is going to happen to your life when that storm hits?

Some of you are in the mist of the storm. You’ve lost your job, your health, you marriage, a loved one, a child, a sister, a friend. You are in the storm, if you have your doubts today, I simply want to tell you that it’s not too late. You can still weather this storm, you can build up your foundation.

If you hear the teachings of Jesus, and you do what he says, you are like the man who build his house on the rocks. If you hear the worlds of Jesus, and don’t do what he says, you are like the idiot that build his house on the sand. Like I told you at the beginning, this stuff is going to be offensive to some people. Jesus says this stuff that I’ve taught you, this stuff that We are going to walk through all summer long, isn’t about gathering more knowledge, it’s about changing the way we do EVERYTHING. But the reason for this is not random or arbitrary. It for a very real and compelling reason. So before you get offended by what Jesus says, please understand this. Jesus says I'm not promising you a life without storms. Now you can live wisely and avoid TONS of stupid, destructive storms in your life. But Jesus says, there will be storms, and when they hit, if you have built your life on the things that I’ve taught you, you are going to come through the other side. If you do the things I’ve taught you, you will make it through to the other side.

Some of you could stand up here and tell us about the storms you’ve weathered. You’ve lost a job in your life, but God brought your through the storm. You lost a child, but God brought you through the storm. You lost your health, but God brought you through the storm. You lost your marriage, but God brought you through. You lost your faith, but God brought your through the other side. Your life was build on the rock and while it looked like everything above the surface was destroyed, everything that everyone else could see was a complete and utter disaster, a state of emergency, completely wiped out, but there was a foundation there, build upon Jesus, and you came through the other side of the storm.

Folks, this isn't about just hearing and learning more stuff. This isn’t just about knowledge. That was so last year. That was so 2008 people, get with the times! This is about doing. This is supposed to change the way you do life.

Here’s what you need to understand. You know what the biggest insult to the follower of Jesus, to anyone who calls themselves a Christian, should be? According to the message that we are going to study all summer it’s this- You are no different than anyone else. You followers of Jesus, you’re just like everyone else in the world.

That is a fundamental betrayal of everything Jesus is working to do in our lives. Jesus gives us this manifesto because our lives are to look different. Not different because we avoid every storm and every problem in life- but different because of how we weather the storm, how we even embrace the storm, how we’ll even use the storm as a opportunity. That’s what makes you Christians so different from the world!

But let me be clear- there is good different, and there’s bad different. There is easy different, and there’s tough different. Jesus wants us to be a good different. All of us have seen bad different. Weird different. The kind of different that just makes you unlikeable, unapproachable. Jesus wants to make us good different.

But good different is most often tough different. It’s costly different. Easy different says well I’ll just go to church all the time and where Christian t-shirts and listen to Christian music and only have Christian friends. And you know, there’s nothing wrong with any of that- I work for the church, I only wear Connections shirts, I have a lot of Christian friends. But guys, that’s like the easy stuff. That the no brainer stuff- of course we need to worship, of course we need Christian friends, of course we need edifying music and stuff in our lives. I’m talking about going the next steps, tough different. Different that changes use in the very core of our being and then effects everything about our lives.

This kind of difference is going to be written all over every page, every paragraph, every teaching of the Manifesto. Your attitude and approach to life is going to be different. Your going to be poor where everyone else seems rich. Your going to bring peace where everyone else is bringing war. You’re going to be pure where everyone else indulges. You’re going to be righteous, where everyone is self-justifying. You’re going to be salt in a world that is rotting with decay. You’re going to be light in places that are consumed with darkness. You’re going to love when everyone else is ready to hate. You’re going to be keep your vows when others are breaking them. You’re going to honor your words when others do not. You’re going to give when others hoard. You’re going to pray when others just put on a show. You’re going to have faith when others a consumed with worry. You’re going to forgive when others hold a grudge. You’re going to by authentic when everyone else is a hypocrite. You’re going to take the hard road when others take the easy road. You are going to be different!

If you do the things that Jesus guides us in doing. If you live the way Jesus instructs us to live, your life will be different. But a good different. A tough different. A kind of different that gets us through the storms, that gets us through to the other side. The kind of different that the world needs. The kind of different that your spouse needs, that your kids need, that your neighbors need, that you boss needs, that your employees need, that your community needs, that the world really does need.

I want to ask you two things this morning- if you haven’t taken a step of faith to give your life to Jesus, to build on Hims as your rock, your foundation, give it a try this summer. Make this the day you break ground. The day you lay that foundation. You can do that so simply, by just praying, Jesus, I’m tired of weathering the storms without you. Take my life. Forgive my sins. Make me yours. And He will.

If you have taken that step of faith, and if you are going to do this with us this summer, I’m asking you to do something very real today. On your way out our ushers and greeters will be handing out these copies of the Manifesto, Matthew 5, 6, 7. I’m asking you to commit to reading this all summer long. All summer long, everyday even. It takes about ten minutes to read through the whole manifesto. And I want so badly for us to be changed by this that I want us to just be consumed in it all summer long. So take the Manifesto, read it. If you have your own bible, you can just use that. Read it first thing when you get up. Read it on a coffee break. Read it as a family before dinner. Read it before you go to bed. Read it. Pray about it. Ponder it. Write about it. Get it in you so that it can get into you.

Let’s pray...