WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.319 Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast. 00:00:02.479 --> 00:00:07.040 We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:08.640 Thanks for tuning in. 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:25.359 What would happen if we started to do the things Jesus did while here on earth? 00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:30.079 In many ways, I think we would look like this person right here. 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:32.000 This man right here. 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:50.640 This is a picture from the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, where on August 17th, 1969, the third day of the music festival, Max Jasker, a 49-year-old simple, hardworking dairy farmer, welcomed a crowd of almost a half a million young people to a six-acre farm in Bethel, New York. 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:52.880 And he said these words to them on that third day. 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:55.840 He says, You've proven something to the world. 00:00:56.079 --> 00:01:13.200 The important thing is that you've proven to the world is that a half a million kids, and I call you kids because I have children who are older than you are, a half a million young people can get together and have a three, have three days of fun and music, and have nothing but fun and music, and God bless you for it. 00:01:13.359 --> 00:01:25.519 Now, if you are familiar with the iconic story of Woodstock and its mark on American history, you'll know that this three-day festival was really only meant to draw 40,000 people. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:33.120 Yet it hit a nerve of a dividing nation, attracting almost a half a million concertgoers. 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:44.400 And so as the 60s movement was led by a young generation self-described as hippies, this three-day music festival of music and art became their pilgrimage. 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:52.239 In many ways, it was a lifestyle protest representing the strands of a larger countercultural movement that was going on at that time. 00:01:52.799 --> 00:02:10.560 Yet somehow, as this music festival was their ultimate and free expression of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, an unassuming champion and protector of this concert was a politically and religiously conservative farmer, husband, and father named Max. 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:16.800 You see, the name Woodstock was actually named after its original location, Woodstock, New York. 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:23.919 It's the historic stomping grounds of famous musicians like the band Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:34.240 But the townspeople of Woodstock, they wanted nothing to do with the crowds, nor did they want anything to do with these hippie, irreligious outcasts of society. 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:38.400 And so the promoters, they moved the festival to Walk Hill, New York. 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:48.560 But it was just down the road, and guys, the same distancing response was given to these people that offended them in their culture. 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:56.879 And so when the promoters were then introduced to Max just a few miles down the road in Bethel, New York, Max had already heard of their mistreatment. 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:09.759 And though he didn't agree with the lifestyle associated with this hippie movement, he was bothered by the injustice they faced and how it was an echo of America's deeper divide. 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:10.879 Max said these words. 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:18.080 He said, if the generation gap is to be closed, we older people have to do more than what we've done. 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:23.520 And so in the midst of both saints and sinners, this farmer did something. 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:35.199 And when the rest of the town said that these outcasts first had to behave or believe in certain ways before they could belong, Max said, No, you belong. 00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:44.080 And so with a firm handshake, Max sealed the deal in warmly welcoming the Woodstock Festival to his farm. 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:54.560 And as Max welcomed in the outcast to his farm, we find that the welcoming in of outcasts is really a central storyline to Jesus' life here on earth. 00:03:54.719 --> 00:04:10.800 And as we continue just to honor the Jesus-centric focus of our 2023 vision, for when we scan the gospels, these first four books of the New Testament, we discover that Jesus was constantly on the lookout for the sinful castaways of his day. 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:18.720 Not to condemn, but to boldly and graciously demonstrate that they belonged in his coming kingdom. 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:35.439 One of the many examples of Jesus welcoming in the social exile into his inner circle is found in Mark chapter 2, where he adds another very questionable and very flawed individual onto this ragtag team of disciples that he's assembling. 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:42.720 Mark chapter 2, verse 14, it reads, As he walked along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector's booth. 00:04:42.959 --> 00:04:44.800 Follow me, Jesus told him. 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:47.600 Levi got up and followed him. 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:54.959 Now, many of you are familiar with this invitation that occurred after several interactions between Jesus and Levi. 00:04:55.279 --> 00:05:04.720 And the reason why there's so much controversy around this, because Levi, also known as Matthew, was a traitor to his own Jewish people. 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:16.319 You see, as a tax collector, Levi, he not only worked for the oppressive powers of Rome that occupied their land, but he was also overcharging his own people and pocketing the surplus. 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:21.120 You need to know that throughout the region, tax collectors were universally known as outcasts. 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:23.519 They were excommunicated from the synagogue. 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:32.079 They were disqualified from ever being a witness in court, and they were actually shunned and disgraced by their immediate and extended family. 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:42.079 But to the adulterers, to the bullies, to the criminals, to the dysfunctional, Jesus says, Follow me. 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:48.160 You see, Jesus wasn't going to fit in the mold of the typical religious leader of his day. 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:58.639 And he does not fit into the mold of this 21st century suburban Jesus that we've created that is overly fixated on individual morality and personal safety. 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:11.360 Jesus' disproportionate pursuit of the outsider, it deeply offended the religious of his day, but at the same time, it greatly attracted the crooks, the drunks, and the prostitutes to his side. 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:21.839 These social lepers were drawn to him, and over time they came in droves just to experience what true belonging, genuine friendship felt and looked like. 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:32.079 And so when we return to the story of Woodstock, we find that due to Max's welcoming posture to the untouchables of his day, a similar groundswell was occurring. 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:38.879 During the final days of the festival's preparations, the promoters realized that something big was happening. 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:47.199 That as the opening act was still days away, young men and women were ascending by the thousands to the town of Bethel and onto Max's farm. 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:55.759 Guys, when you are expecting 50,000 concert goers and 400,000 are soon to arrive, it creates a bit of a logistical nightmare. 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:58.319 Worse than trying to find parking at the prune yard, right? 00:06:58.480 --> 00:06:59.199 All right, all right. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:00.959 I'm a local now, I can say these things. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:01.360 All right. 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:02.079 Yeah. 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:12.720 Therefore, the concert promoter, Michael Lang, one of the main ones, he soon came to the conclusion stating you do everything you can to get the gates and the fences finished, but you have priorities. 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:13.759 People are coming. 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:17.839 And you need to be able to feed them, take care of them, and give them a show. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:20.319 So you have to prioritize. 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:24.000 So the concert promoters prioritized, and they did the unthinkable. 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:34.000 They put the people over the profit making the difficult decision to tear down the fences and turn Woodstock into a free event. 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:41.360 I would have had an incredibly happy wife and daughter if Taylor Swift would have done this a month ago. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:42.800 I want you to know that. 00:07:45.120 --> 00:08:01.439 So as their love for people won over their fear of losing profit, Max had no idea what he was in for, nor could he have ever predicted that his welcoming invitation for a concert would soon turn into the most pivotal moment in musical and countercultural history. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:02.959 Church, you hear this. 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:09.839 The older we get, the more we prefer the predictable, the comfortable, and the safe things. 00:08:10.079 --> 00:08:15.680 But our God, He loves the element of surprise, contradicting how we think things should go. 00:08:15.839 --> 00:08:27.600 Because for John, James, Peter, and Andrew, the current disciples with Jesus at this time, they had to be completely disgusted and unnerved with Jesus' surprise draft pick. 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:35.600 They had no idea that when they woke up that day to follow Jesus, that he would ever ask them to befriend a traitor. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:44.879 And nor could they have ever predicted that further fences would be turned down, eating in the home of the tax collector with his very friends. 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:54.000 Because this Messiah without home, without bed, follows up his invitation by hosting a party at Levi's house as we continue on reading in verse 15. 00:08:54.080 --> 00:09:02.080 It says, while Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors, sinners, were eating with him and his disciples. 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:05.440 For there were many who followed him. 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:09.120 Guys, hear me on this. 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:17.440 The more Christ-centered you become, yes, the less sin you will have, but the more sinners you should have. 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:34.720 See, the word sinner here in the text has less to do with classified sinner of falling short of God's perfection, and it refers more towards those who were social outcasts, the criminals, the cultural untouchables, those who didn't play by the religious rules of his day. 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:39.679 And Jesus loved being with people like this. 00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:48.879 It wasn't that he was just tolerating them so he could grace them with his presence, but Jesus actually loved and liked the outsider. 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:51.919 He was eager to hang with them, hear their stories. 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:55.840 He wanted to get to know them and be friends with them. 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:01.840 When you sat with Jesus, you felt true inclusion and genuine belonging. 00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:10.000 Awakening, we always want to be a church that moves and transitions us from rows to circles and experience new levels of connection and community like this. 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:21.919 And it's good for us to gather like this, collectively give God our worship, sit under the teaching of His Word, but at the same time, we're very diligent of trying to move us towards deeper relational intimacy and connection. 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:26.879 And we're gonna have groups and studies that are gonna be launching here in just a few weeks under Roland's leadership. 00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:30.320 And I really just want to encourage you, prioritize this opportunity. 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:34.480 It drives you deeper into these more intimate spaces that we find right here. 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:38.720 Yeah, I if you're asking me, small groups are weird and they're awkward. 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:41.039 And I'm not a fan of them, but I know I need them. 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:46.559 And every time I go to a small group, I'm kicking and screaming, and every time I leave, I'm like, I'm so thankful I did that. 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:51.919 I'm designed to grow in the context of relationship, even though my inner self wants to fight it. 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:53.840 And the same is true with you. 00:10:54.080 --> 00:11:07.039 And so, guys, these newly formed relationships that we can have in just a few weeks, they're gonna grow us, but they also are an example of unity in the midst of diversity to a world so desperate for harmony. 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:19.440 You have to understand when Jesus had dinner with Levi's friends, he was not only just hanging out and enjoying a good meal with one another, but he was also making a profound statement. 00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:32.240 For a meal in Jesus' day was the most emphatic way to declare unity with others and a statement to the world that a sense of belonging with Jesus and his followers preceded believing or behaving. 00:11:32.879 --> 00:11:41.519 And for Max, he too wanted to create a movement of belonging with a generation that he did not align with when it came to how they believed and behaved. 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:52.879 And though Max had a high value towards personal purity, he wasn't going to allow that to diminish his personal calling to live in proximity with the so-called marginalized or the rebellious. 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:58.960 Yet for many of the neighbors and friends of Max, again, you first had to believe in certain things. 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:02.960 You had to behave in certain ways before you could ever belong. 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:12.480 It's one thing to say that you love the outsider from a distance, it's a whole other thing to bring them into your personal space and say that we are in this together. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:14.480 So the town pushed back. 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:16.639 They made personal threats to Max. 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:18.399 They boycotted the sales of his milk. 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:21.840 They posted signs everywhere saying, don't buy Jasker's milk. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:23.200 He loves the hippies. 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:32.960 Here's one of many protest signs shown in the county paper declaring not only to stop buying Max's milk, but it also said stop Max's hippie music festival. 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:35.919 No 150,000 hippies here. 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:38.960 Which it wasn't 150, it was maybe 500,000. 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:49.519 The main reason they didn't want these hippies had less to do with the crowds and more to do with the lifestyle of open sex, free drug use, and alcohol abuse. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:13:02.799 Awakening, I have never ever met a person who fell in love with Jesus because someone bashed them over the head about their immoral lifestyle. 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:07.360 Sixteen years I was pastoring at a church in Akron, Ohio. 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:11.120 By state law, I'm to say that that is the home of LeBron James. 00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:18.320 And while having several roles there, my first eight years I was a youth pastor. 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:21.039 And I started off as really a hypocritical legalist. 00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:28.399 I was able to learn grace from my senior pastor there, and the church was located in the downtown district surrounded by inner-city communities. 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:32.720 However, our attenders primarily came from the outside suburbs. 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:44.000 And so as our church had a vibrant ministry to the needs of the local inner city, like many churches, it was primarily one-dimensional, keeping the needy and the marginalized at arm's length. 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:53.679 And so when our student ministries began to bridge the gap and blend our events and programs with inner city students who were far from God, some of our parents they cried foul. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:14:01.519 You see, their noble value of safety had warped itself into unbiblical ideas of comfort, uniformity, and separatism. 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:11.279 I'll never forget one outreach event where a middle school student showed up with a t-shirt and a huge marijuana leaf on it. 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:18.799 Now, this was back in the day when marijuana was illegal, more taboo, not like today where you smell it in every third car driving off the 101. 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:20.720 You know, it's like, oh, okay, alright. 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:24.480 But back then it was, it was it was way more taboo. 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:33.360 And so, in light of this so-called serious infraction, a parent volunteer started to walk over and asked that student to to turn his shirt inside out. 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:36.720 And I just beelined over there and I stopped her. 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:38.960 And I said, we will not do that here. 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:47.120 And then I brought that team together after that event, and I said, We will never tolerate such condemnation degradation to a student again. 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:52.879 That though there may be things that are offensive, we will not become easily offended. 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:58.960 And I essentially told them that, guys, listen, when we see more shirts like this, that is then a true sign of success. 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:02.399 That we're actually reaching the people that Jesus would reach. 00:15:03.039 --> 00:15:12.799 Now they had thought that that was the new metric and tried to turn our logo into marijuana leaf to boost numbers and lawsuit with Snoop Dogg. 00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:14.240 No, that's that last part. 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:15.919 That last part's untrue. 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:16.480 All right. 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:17.440 It was dumb. 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:18.879 That last part was dumb. 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:19.919 I retract that. 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:26.399 You see, for Jesus guys, dinner with sinners was a success. 00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:28.720 And the more, the merrier. 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:35.919 However, the legalistic leaders of Jesus' day, they were masters of shaming, hiding behind their masks of self-justification. 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:45.519 They easily offend these easily offended watchdogs love to play the moral police, catching people doing the wrong thing, especially Jesus, the king of scandal. 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:51.120 And so these local townspeople made up of teachers and Pharisees, they react in verse 16 as we read here. 00:15:51.279 --> 00:16:01.440 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:15.039 Jesus was constantly experiencing guilt by association, accused of being a drunk and a glutton and a cheat due to the people he hung out with. 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:28.159 Today we have people who actually, we, in my opinion, read way too much into a like on social media, to a bake cake for a questionable wedding or the holding of a bud light can. 00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:45.759 And like the Pharisees of old, we can ignorantly begin to see that any act of kindness, solidarity, or even public service to an immoral or questionable person is also an endorsement of that person's ethics and actions and ideals. 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:48.720 We draw those lines. 00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:52.240 We connect those dots when we shouldn't. 00:16:53.120 --> 00:17:06.559 Years ago, when I was working with an inner city ministry in Philadelphia, my church team, we were assigned a work project with an apartment building occupied by a couple that this inner city ministry was building a relationship with. 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:13.680 This couple had a small child and they were in desperate need of any kind of financial hope, communal hope, spiritual hope. 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:31.440 However, a month-long rapport that this ministry was building with this couple was destroyed within seconds when one of our team members they angrily left only minutes after arriving, shouting that she refused to serve a house of unmarried sinners living together. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:18:00.240 You see, Jesus was willing to be misunderstood and walked out on for the sake of love and belonging because anytime you create a culture of inclusion, it comes with confusion and especially questioning from the outside world, but especially irritating those that want their God and their faith in a clean and tidy box. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:09.440 And Christ wasn't going to cater to the interrogation of these leaders who were more concerned with his unrighteous company than their own self-righteous hearts. 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:22.960 Even for Max, he was not only accused of being a lover of hippies, which he was actually fine with, but he was also seen as someone who approved of their ideology, such as sex without boundaries, illegal drug use. 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:30.000 Max faced signs of boycott as well as rumors and gossip of ethical compromise from a small town. 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:35.759 However, the truth was that Max's ethical guardrails didn't align with reckless sex. 00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:38.640 He didn't align with illegal drug use. 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:45.359 And as there were a wide variety of drugs used during the festival, the drug of choice was LSD. 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:50.640 And the use of acid on Max's farm, it horrified him. 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:56.559 At night he would pace through his house just wondering if he made a terrible mistake. 00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:01.519 Now, Church, I do feel like I need to make a public service announcement here. 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:11.359 There are times when Jesus' pursuit of inclusion and belonging elevated the threat level with actual tangible harm and danger. 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:18.480 However, from what I can see, I don't think he was reckless to the point of putting the vulnerable, the vulnerable around him in danger. 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:22.400 And we just have to recognize we have varied convictions and guidelines on these matters. 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:25.680 We recognize we need wisdom with each invitational opportunity. 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:30.880 I believe some victims shouldn't welcome in their former abusers. 00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:34.559 Some addicts shouldn't enter into some certain environments. 00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:38.240 And families with young children, you need to establish some guardrails. 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:50.960 When I was in a long-standing friendship with a homeless, paranoid schizophrenic that had a history of armed violence, I really felt like I needed to keep that friendship and relationship outside of my family for their own safety. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:20:01.759 However, when our family became decade-long friends with an active drug addict and a former felon who was regularly in our home for meals and family celebrations, we still had to have some guardrails. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:05.039 Our kids knew, hey, you're not to be alone with this person. 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:10.319 You're never to be alone with this person in the car, they're never to be driving you anywhere. 00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:13.759 Balancing truth and love, it can be complex. 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:15.759 It can be a gut-wrenching process. 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:31.279 And when you create a wide on-ramp of loving inclusion that eventually leads to the narrow, exclusive path of Jesus' truth, there's a constant temptation to want to jump ahead and get to that narrow path of critique and instruction. 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:44.400 But when you see the constant pattern outlined by Jesus, he was always starting with a relational platform of belonging before he ever offered a loving challenge to believe or a humble critique to behave. 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:56.079 And when we reverse the sequence, leading with behaving and believing, we immediately create a posture of shame for those seeking a community to journey towards Christ-centeredness with. 00:20:56.400 --> 00:21:00.160 And so these people they start to feel like they're too messy, too far from God. 00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:06.079 They begin to accept the lies of both their inner and outer voice, and they change their very identity. 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:19.039 And what we find here in Woodstock's the young people who attended Woodstock, guys, they heard America devaluing them for so long that it became their identity, and so they proudly just took on the shameful badge of hippie and freak. 00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:30.000 Awakening the formula for shame is continually realizing you don't live up to the standards of the community and then reinforcing it through the continuous actions of condemnation. 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:35.519 Over time you begin to believe that you're worthless and you reject your very self. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:43.440 However, despite the large segment of protesters in Bethel, New York, there were others that refused to allow these hippies to be self identified as freaks. 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:59.359 When some locals, many of them Christ followers, heard of this festival that was unable to feed the unexpected number of so called outcasts, they actually began to immediately raid their pantries and refrigerators, airlifting continuous supply of food onto concert grounds. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.240 Chicken farmers depleted their egg supplies. 00:22:02.319 --> 00:22:03.359 They hard-boiled them. 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:06.319 They sent hundreds of thousands to the festival. 00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:15.599 One local woman who was handing out homemade sandwiches to concertgoers was interviewed by a TV news reporter asking why she was enabling these hippies to overrun her town. 00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:20.480 And the woman replied with these words right here: We do as the Bible tells us, we welcome strangers. 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:21.920 We don't say get out. 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:23.359 It's not our communities. 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:26.000 They're hungry, so we feed them. 00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:43.039 You see, despite what culture was saying about this young generation, several families were able to rise above the cultural rules, rise above the product protests that were played out in media, and they were able to truly see and love the individual casualties in front of them. 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:45.680 They were able to see the image of God. 00:22:46.319 --> 00:22:51.839 For Max, he too was determined to counter the cultural of this current of shame. 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:59.440 And for the marginalized generation to experience affirmation and loving support, for them to hear the words, I am for you. 00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:00.559 I am with you. 00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:02.799 We are in this together. 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:11.920 Even at one town meeting seeking to change the zoning laws to stop the festival, Max patiently listened to all their complaints, and then he stood up and he said these words. 00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:15.039 I hear you're considering changing the zoning law to prevent the festival. 00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:18.079 I hear you don't like the look of these kids who are working at the site. 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:19.759 I hear you don't like their lifestyle. 00:23:19.839 --> 00:23:23.759 I hear you don't like they're against the war and that they say it very loudly. 00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:26.720 I don't particularly like the looks of them, these kids either. 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:30.400 I don't particularly like their lifestyle, especially the drugs and free love. 00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:34.000 And I don't like what some of them are saying about our government. 00:23:34.240 --> 00:23:34.400 Mr. 00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:41.680 Farmer went on from there, and then he concluded concluded his rebuttal with a little good old-fashioned uh righteous anger. 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:55.759 And he concluded saying this the only, so the only objective to this fest objection to this festival here is to keep long hairs out of town where you can go pound salt up here, fill in the blank, because come August 15th, we're gonna have a festival. 00:23:56.799 --> 00:24:00.400 That's actually the only fill in the blank I put in the teaching notes, and I think that's funny. 00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:01.599 Alright. 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:07.279 I can just be a little kid sometimes, and I was like, well, at least I'll be chuckling about that tonight. 00:24:07.440 --> 00:24:08.079 All right. 00:24:09.839 --> 00:24:23.920 So in the midst of opposition as to why Jesus can't, uh excuse me, and in the midst of Jesus' opposition as to why he eats with tax collectors and sinners, there's actually a firm response to the smug that Jesus gives. 00:24:24.079 --> 00:24:29.359 Very similar to Max, a little bit more tact, but Jesus ends with these words at the party. 00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:31.039 He says this in verse 17. 00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:38.160 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, Is it not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick? 00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:40.319 It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. 00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:43.279 I have come to call the righteous. 00:24:43.519 --> 00:24:46.160 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:48.960 It's up there, you can read it. 00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:52.000 I obviously can't. 00:24:52.640 --> 00:25:00.000 Now I'm a New Jersey native, and I love Jesus' response here because he uses one of my state's greatest exports. 00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:01.440 Sarcasm. 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:06.480 You see, Jesus is very subtly using some righteous sarcasm here. 00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:12.799 He's essentially saying, Yeah, I'm not here for you so-called perfect people, but I'm here for these people. 00:25:13.519 --> 00:25:18.400 People who actually realize they need help in being made whole again. 00:25:19.039 --> 00:25:24.079 And similar to what Max was saying at that town hall meeting, Jesus is saying, you know what? 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:25.759 I'm with them. 00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:38.799 And there are those in our community, the homeless, the addicts, the sexual minorities, the prostitutes, the undocumented, the list goes on that are desperately seeking to hear these words from us. 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:49.759 No matter who they are, what they've done, how they may differ and how they bel in what they believe from you, they are yearning for us to say we are with you. 00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:53.759 Come sit at the table and we will journey with you. 00:25:54.960 --> 00:26:04.799 And so when you start with belonging before, believing, and behaving, when you follow the biblical pattern of love and grace to come before truth and ethics, it always comes with a price. 00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:08.799 For Jesus, leading with love and compassion, it eventually took his life. 00:26:09.119 --> 00:26:17.119 For Max, it took his friends, his finances, and even his farm, as seen here during the last act of the festival. 00:26:19.599 --> 00:26:22.319 Loving like Jesus, guys, is messy. 00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:28.000 This was a little more tolerable because Hendricks was playing at this time, but still. 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:31.920 The aftermath of Woodstock on Max's farm, it was devastating. 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:38.960 Not only was his land trash, but the neighboring farm sued him$35,000 for damages on their property. 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:49.039 Another 80 lawsuits were then filed by farmers to the concert promoters, but this dairy farmer knew that you don't produce a profit without painful committed investment. 00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:55.680 For Max, the greatest profit and reward for his investment was to see many rescued from the damaging abuse of drugs. 00:26:55.920 --> 00:27:05.839 Because after he built a relational rapport and respect with concert goers, he used his new public platform to become a vocal crusader against drug abuse. 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:20.480 And as the result of Max leading with love before a humble challenge in ethics, hundreds of letters poured in from festivalgoers thanking him for his hospitality while informing him that they had quit drugs due to his loving challenge. 00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:28.640 You see, Max masterfully walked the line between blind acceptance and ruthless honesty. 00:27:28.960 --> 00:27:33.519 And that he would patiently reveal truth once a relationship had been built. 00:27:33.920 --> 00:27:39.759 He had these drug users on his land and in his home and around his dinner table showing them acceptance and respect. 00:27:39.839 --> 00:27:45.759 And then he was able to provide himself the right to be heard about his own personal truth and ethic. 00:27:46.079 --> 00:27:58.640 Creating a community of belonging doesn't mean you have to personally abandon your core beliefs or an ethical behavior that is unpopular with the majority, because we know there is always going to be foundations of our faith that are countercultural. 00:27:58.880 --> 00:28:04.880 Because we have broken hearts and we want to continually adjust God-ordained boundaries. 00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:14.319 But we have to realize similar to a river with banks that provides life and flourishing, a river without banks leads to destruction. 00:28:14.559 --> 00:28:17.759 True freedom can only exist within boundaries. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:26.319 And Max knew his boundaries about addiction and drug use were important, but he couldn't address them until a relational friendship had been built. 00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:46.799 And as Max had a personal impact with addicts, there was also a national impact for his courageous act of loving and belonging, because again, the festival that took place on his farm became the most iconic touchstone of the changing 60s culture, altering really the very fabric of rock and roll and pop culture forever. 00:28:47.279 --> 00:28:51.759 And despite the mess and personal loss for Max, it was a victory. 00:28:52.079 --> 00:29:07.839 A victory to show the world that these generations who are different can come together, that a half a million so-called hippies and unruly freaks could gather in peace and love and turn their identity in the history books from the hippie generation to the Woodstock generation. 00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:14.880 Because of one man saying yes to belonging before believing and behaving, awakening, this is what was created. 00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:16.799 I want you to see that picture. 00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:23.759 No one could have ever predicted that a farmer's invitation would create such a sea of people. 00:29:25.119 --> 00:29:31.440 Guys, this is exactly what Jesus was predicting with this invitation in Mark II. 00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:51.839 You see, this meal with sinners, this first supper, was a foreshadowing of the sacred last supper that would then lead to Jesus on the cross tearing down the fences of our sin penalty, allowing anyone to belong to this great heavenly banquet of saints and sinners and farmers that awaits. 00:29:52.880 --> 00:30:08.720 So when the friends of Levi, they sat back in their chairs, and it was after some wine and good food and laughter, they looked at each other, and I have to imagine they just said, guys, wow, we were sinners. 00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:13.359 The Christ dined with us. 00:30:14.799 --> 00:30:32.079 And years later, overtaken with the scandalous grace of this scandalous Savior, Paul, a former terrorist that was then turned apostle, he penned these words in Romans 5.8, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, awakening. 00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:45.359 May we never forget that we are all spiritual outcasts who did not believe, who did not behave the right way, yet Christ first made a way for us to belong. 00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:51.039 And so awakening is God is expanding our church family to allow more people to belong. 00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:54.799 Where in our hearts is he asking us to expand? 00:30:55.839 --> 00:31:00.480 Are you able to have a meaningful friendship with those that don't believe or behave like you? 00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:09.920 And my question for you is this the seat, the empty seat near you, can anyone, anyone truly sit in that seat? 00:31:11.599 --> 00:31:13.440 A QAnon fanatic? 00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:15.279 A racist? 00:31:15.759 --> 00:31:17.200 A drag queen? 00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:18.559 A felon? 00:31:20.079 --> 00:31:21.839 Or do you have your limits? 00:31:23.119 --> 00:31:29.039 The only way that you can fill that chair next to you with truly anyone is to first start with the two chairs in your home. 00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:31.279 Here's the two quick challenges. 00:31:31.440 --> 00:31:33.119 First, the chair in your home. 00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:37.680 Where you have that regular engagement with God's scripture and prayer. 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:43.039 And for some of you, you have this discipline of reading God's word in the morning, like our Pastor Ryan. 00:31:43.279 --> 00:31:46.160 Others, it's the last thing you do before your head hits the pillow. 00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:49.839 Whenever that private time with God is, I'm just challenging you to wrestle with God. 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:56.880 Ask Him to just bring forth any unforeseen fences demanding believing and behaving before anyone can belong in your life. 00:31:57.119 --> 00:32:08.240 To consider just going through the next few weeks, going through the gospels and asking God to allow you to see Jesus in a new way and how he operated with his heart and hands throughout this world. 00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:11.680 Second is the chair around your table. 00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:20.799 When was a chair around your dinner table filled with a person that made you and your family feel a little out of your comfort zone, a little uncomfortable? 00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:22.960 I'm not talking about your teenager. 00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:34.480 Maybe it's a person of another faith or ethnicity, a sexual minority, someone of a different economic status, or one that just sits on the other side of the political aisle as you. 00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:41.359 Sometimes it starts by just asking a typical stranger to come over for a meal, which you could do today with somebody in this room. 00:32:41.759 --> 00:32:51.200 Awakening when we work with God in those two chairs, you'll be amazed of how easy it is to fill that chair next to you with truly anyone. 00:32:53.519 --> 00:32:58.960 When Jesus left this earth, Luke tells us he was known as a friend of sinners. 00:32:59.359 --> 00:33:07.920 When Max left this earth, he was only one of a handful of non-musicians to receive a full-page obituary in Rolling Stone magazine. 00:33:08.400 --> 00:33:17.519 When you leave this earth, how would the moral failures, the marginalized, the untouchables of our society respond? 00:33:17.680 --> 00:33:19.440 Will they give you tribute? 00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:22.160 Will they say, That was my friend? 00:33:23.279 --> 00:33:28.400 A divine legacy like this begins with a humble posture and a loving invitation to belong. 00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:38.319 I would love for us just to end by just going to God in prayer, asking that he would bring to completion such a legacy in our own lives, in our own homes, and also in this church as well. 00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:40.000 So let's go to him now in prayer. 00:33:40.079 --> 00:33:51.839 And so, God, we just want to thank you that while we were still sinners, you sent your son to die for our sin penalty. 00:33:52.240 --> 00:33:53.920 We didn't believe anything. 00:33:54.079 --> 00:33:57.519 We didn't behave the right way, yet you've made a way to belong. 00:33:57.599 --> 00:34:06.640 And so, as a people transformed by this incredible act of belonging, may we too tangibly reflect this message to a world around us. 00:34:07.519 --> 00:34:12.639 God, thank you for the many in this room who lead the way in unconditional love. 00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:14.960 I see their faces as I look out. 00:34:15.360 --> 00:34:17.760 They lead the way in unmerited favor. 00:34:21.440 --> 00:34:24.480 And just give us the strength and power to follow their example. 00:34:24.960 --> 00:34:27.119 God, thank you for our connections team. 00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:33.679 Just the way they welcome us with unconditional love every Sunday, and just what that means to all of us. 00:34:34.239 --> 00:34:44.960 God, we ask that you would just remove the barriers in our hearts and prevent us from pouring out endless mercy and grace to the broken, shamed, and shunned of our community. 00:34:45.119 --> 00:34:49.519 And for some of this room, God, may they surrender their lives to you for the first time. 00:34:50.079 --> 00:34:58.559 Maybe something just clicked, but that they would embrace your loving act on the cross, now trusting in you as your as their one true rescuer and leader. 00:34:59.360 --> 00:35:13.920 For others, may there be a re-surrendering during our personal chair time this week as we read your word, and that you would just tear down any fences preventing us from living out a life and your mission to the fullest. 00:35:14.800 --> 00:35:23.440 And may it then lead to filling a chair around our dinner table, and even a chair within this room of those that you've called us to reach. 00:35:25.199 --> 00:35:27.920 God, we do pray for our lead pastor, Ryan. 00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:31.280 You bring him back refreshed. 00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:40.559 We're thankful for this time he's had, and may you use him in a powerful way to stir our hearts and actions in reaching those that are far from you. 00:35:40.639 --> 00:35:45.280 And so we ask all of this in the name of the one we belong, Jesus Christ. 00:35:46.159 --> 00:35:46.800 Amen. 00:35:47.920 --> 00:35:50.159 We hope you are blessed by this message. 00:35:50.320 --> 00:35:54.800 Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded. 00:35:54.960 --> 00:35:57.039 And hey, we'd love to connect with you. 00:35:57.199 --> 00:36:02.960 Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.comslash card.