I invented a game that this is nonsense, but we literally, I think the only two times we played this were for friends' bachelor parties. And the game has no name, but here's what we did. I got one of those old VHS 8 or VHS C video recorders, the little camcorder things. And back in the day, those things had really slick night vision. I mean, it made you look all like demonic and creepy stuff. It was awesome night vision. And then what I did is I found this room, and we played at this church I used to work at in Nebraska. We found this room with no windows, no nothing. It opened to a hall with no windows. And so we could, I mean, 100% kill the light. But somehow, and I don't know how night vision works because I'm not a scientist, we could use this camera and you could see what was going on. So we would play this game where we would fill this little, like, I don't know, 12 by 12 room with a whole bunch of like couch cushions and dodgeballs and other things you could hit people with that wouldn't hurt them that much. And then we would turn the camera on and the game was, well, let's just see what happens. And of course, what happened was like we just beat on each other mercilessly, but you have no idea where anybody is. So you just kind of wait for someone to make a noise or for something to happen, and then you just crush them. And then the fun of it is you play for like an hour and everybody's just like sweaty and bruised. And then you go and uh we would we would set up this great big TV and like get pizza and we would sit there and when you watch the whole video of everybody beating each other senseless. I did I seriously just take two and a half minutes to tell you that. You know what? No ragrets. I'm proud of that story. And the craziest thing in there is I remember one time things got like somebody got hurt or something was weird for a minute. Oh, yeah, it was my buddy, his shoulder came out of its socket and it was dangling there. I saw that on camera. It was horrifying. And nobody could find any lights because we banned all that stuff, but one person had a watch with a light on it and they pushed the button, boom, and the whole room just lit up, and we were able to, you know, find our friend and had a little trick for how to reset that shoulder. And in that situation, the whole light thing was a favor to everybody because you introduce light into this very dark place, and then you have the ability to fix a difficult situation. You have not endured so much storytelling since the dreaded amber box lunch incident of episode, whatever episode that was. Segway time. It's the same deal with what Jesus is describing for the role of the kingdom citizen in a world that is very, very, very dark, apart from the presence of God reflected by those kingdom citizens. So in Matthew 5, 14, Jesus says, You're the light of the world, a city on a hill can't be hidden. Neither 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. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. So what we're getting here is Jesus landing the plane on one block of ideas, where he has gone from saying, Here's what your relationship is going to be like with the world if you sign up for this Jesus Kingdom King thing, and here's how the world's gonna react, here's some of the frictions you're gonna feel, but here's the point of you. You are a preservative, you are flavoring, you are purifying just by your presence, not because of you, but because what you drag along with you as one who has embraced these kingdom values. And further, and I think a more poignant metaphor for a modern audience like us, you're light and darkness. And that has benefits. It's there for a reason, it helps things. So now we're getting to the why of both of these analogies. Well, because then other people can see what light looks like, and maybe they just can't even miss what light looks like, and it affects the way they think about stuff. That's interesting because propaganda is a thing and idea information management is a thing, and everybody from every special interest is trying to manage information and control information and win these idea wars, which are frustrating because then it feels like everybody's lying to everybody all the time. And so maybe we don't get a really clear picture of this. But one of the things that has impressed me, even about versions of church, I'm maybe not super crazy about or don't super align with, is Christians who experience these values, they experience what it is like to have problems and come to understand the deal with a God who gets that people have problems and knew from the beginning of time people would have problems and still carried out this redemptive plan. They have that experience and then they go and give it away. Remember, we've talked about this pattern throughout the whole New Testament. If you've received grace, if you've received forgiveness, if you've received patience, you got to give away grace, forgiveness, patience, whatever it is. And I see people doing this, people whose theology I disagree with. I see them go out, understand Jesus in whatever way they understand Jesus, and spend their time and their money trying to do things that are redemptive. I see some people try to do this very abstractly, and I admire it even in cases where it's maybe a little bit clumsy. People going out and trying to talk with people who theoretically you just can't talk to because we're in a big, giant, stupid social fight. So you don't talk with them. I admire those people. I admire people who I might disagree with theologically, but they just keep taking care of single moms. They just keep taking care of marginalized people, oppressed people. They show love to people they disagree with politically. That melts my brain. When I see Christians, when I see Christians go out and be cool to people who would like to see the Christian ideology burned down, that's amazing to me. And the interesting thing is so often that comes from people who, like I said, don't think the same stuff as I think, but it's still so compelling. You know, I sit in this in this one little, yeah, on this one little branch of the Christian family tree, and I try to play nicely with all the other branches as well. And um, you know, acknowledging we all change and we're all always thinking new stuff and wrestling through ideas. But I look at people in other positions and if I don't talk to them or hang out with them at all, it's really easy for me to ascribe bad motives to them or assume that they're intellectually dishonest. But then when you see what they do, it's like, huh, maybe there's something to your ideas, even though I kind of theoretically abstractly reject them because it's prompting you to do good things. As an outsider to every religion but my own, when I look at what other people are doing and see that it is redemptive and good, I find it compelling, even if I see major problems in that thought from other religions, offshoots of Christianity, whatever. But here, what I believe we're talking about is the truest, realist thing. That which so much of this other stuff is split off from. These values of the kingdom, these are legit. And when I see people live this out, even for reasons I don't totally get, I, as an insider, find it compelling and it forces me to rethink some of my assumptions and biases and to give people a little bit more of the benefit of the doubt. If that is the case for me, when I'm trying to be honest as an insider, how much more so is this the case for people who are outsiders who see people affected by the values of this kingdom, just go and do right by people and do right by people that it doesn't benefit them to do right by at all. Now, look, in the interest of fairness, I see this from people who aren't into religion at times as well. At this moment in history, I feel like there is a lot more of a reaction against Christianity in the evolution of that sauce thought system. And but there are exceptions to that. And good is good. And I respect it when I see it, and I find it moving when I see it, even if it's coming from people I really disagree with. And and look, no offense to people I disagree with, but I think no system of thought, no set of values is truer and realer and more compelling and more sustainable and more disarming and more world-changing and more merciful, even to people you disagree with, than the values that Jesus just articulated right here. And when I see those things lived out, I find it compelling is too gentle a word. I it makes me stop and think real hard about what is going on in the life of the person who lives out these values. And that seems to be the game plan. I mean, the game plan of Christianity and of Jesus, I don't think it is arrive at the one final singular, correct understanding of God on every single possible theological point. I mean, if that was the objective, I think you would have written a much longer Bible where every single detail is spelled out, and then you just automatically think all of those things and you don't think at all, you just assent. But the way the Bible's constructed, the way planet Earth and existence are constructed, it seems like it's built to drive us toward dependence on Christ and reflection of the values of his kingdom more than it's built to drive us toward absolute final certainty on everything that ultimately everyone is going to have to come around to because we're right and we're gonna win the argument. Going out and winning the argument, though it's important to think about stuff and even pleasantly argue about stuff, it just doesn't seem like that is the game plan for how this transformation occurs. First and foremost, it seems like the game plan, according to Jesus, is city on a hill, light of the world, individuals who embrace the values of this kingdom and the king who's behind it and the whole system, and then they go out and function like it, even to their own detriment by world standards at times, that is compelling. That changes the game, that affects people. That is a big part of the equation of why I came back to this thing. So surprise, as we land the plane on this opening thought of the Beatitudes, the whole point of these things, these not New Testament Ten Commandments, the whole point of all of this is not to earn the approval of God to gain admission to the kingdom. It can't be. The point of it all is spelled out in the very last verse of this opening thought, verse 16. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds not full stop and praise your Father in heaven. The glory of God is the bottom line of the whole religion. The glory of God is the bottom line of the book of Matthew. The glory of God is the bottom line of the Sermon on the Mount. The glory of God is the bottom line of kingdom-like behavior in people. The glory of God is the only rational bottom line of everything. I mean, there are two possibilities here. Existence just happened and there is no point, or the prime mover initiated creation, and everything that points to what that prime mover is and has accomplished, that is the point of creation. Is one or the other, if this is here on purpose, the glory of whatever put it here is the point. I think that rationally follows. And I think it makes sense that what someone claiming to be God in the flesh would say would square with that understanding. We're gonna get into the next logical sets of questions next time around, unless I decide that we're gonna think about this some more, which I may as I sit here. I'm Matt is a 10 minute Bible Hour Podcast. I appreciate y'all. Let's do this again soon.