SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, Florida.
SPEAKER_00: We're grateful to be with you this morning on this Christ the King Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: What does it matter?
SPEAKER_01: Look how beautiful everybody looks.
SPEAKER_01: You do look all beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Looks like they're sitting at a supper club right now.
SPEAKER_00: Why are there lamps on the tables?
SPEAKER_00: Because next week is Advent will beloved and things are changing.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't want to miss it because some days you show up and there's extra light or there's less light or bring your lights with us.
SPEAKER_00: We acknowledge the goodness.
SPEAKER_01: This is that means we'll be uh four services without the lights on in the service.
SPEAKER_01: So we know some people need light, so you can gravitate towards those little tables if you get there early enough.
SPEAKER_01: You guys turned yours off, huh?
SPEAKER_01: Keep your light shining before all.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're so grateful for your presence this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is a very special Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: It is considered Christ the King Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Why does it matter?
SPEAKER_00: It's important because we have been for the past almost six months studying what it looks like in ordinary time, meaning by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: What does it look like for God to enter our lives?
SPEAKER_00: How are we to live as ones who have seen a great hope?
SPEAKER_00: And we've been talking about the power of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit that empowers us to live lives of joy instead of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: When the Holy Spirit is present, there is joy.
SPEAKER_00: I remind you of the first miracle in Cana.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus is saying, I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: I know you thought it was different, it's really going to be different.
SPEAKER_00: And here's a whole bunch of joy.
SPEAKER_00: Gallons and gallons of wine, so that everybody can enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: Wine had so much symbolism that there would be abundance, that there would be health, that there would be joy, and over and over again the Holy Spirit brings joy.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm I just wanted to remind you that that uh uh what really we're talking about is you're uh you're all just amazing, uh potentially amazing lampstands.
SPEAKER_01: And you and and really it's that Christ in you that can shine if we would set aside that kind of religious judgment and that that stuff that just uh pushes folks away.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and I I find it to be so woven in the way all of us behave.
SPEAKER_01: And and uh uh just just the other day I was uh coming out on the main road and I was waiting for a car to come.
SPEAKER_01: I figured they uh wouldn't want to cut out in front of them, so I waited, and it seemed like they just kept getting like forever to get to the and then they turned, right?
SPEAKER_01: Beside me without a blinker.
SPEAKER_01: I was being nice and waiting for them to pass, and then they slow, slow, slow, and then turned, and I immediately said what none of you have ever said, Why wouldn't you use the blinker?
SPEAKER_01: What am I doing right there?
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing right there?
SPEAKER_01: You're judging.
SPEAKER_01: You are you've decided that it's that is the role you're gonna play on this earth, and that role it's it's useless.
SPEAKER_01: I've never gotten an answer from the Lord, or that person has never stopped and explained to me where their headspace was or what's mechanically wrong with their vehicle or what they personally are opposed to blinkers.
SPEAKER_01: They just went on with their life, and I was left with just junk, gross anger, frustration.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and I could either live in that place, and that's the place of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a fun place.
SPEAKER_01: None of you like it.
SPEAKER_01: But what if I could live in a place where blessed, I really believe you're blessed, and maybe you just were in another place, and whatever, and so I bless you to go on with your life, and I can go be a lampstand somewhere else.
SPEAKER_01: I don't let those trivial things extinguish what God wants to do in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Would you maybe consider that the value of that light shining is more important than the unanswerable question of why they won't use a blinker?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone with me or are you gonna throw rocks at me and stone me out of the.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm off my soapbox now, Heather.
SPEAKER_01: You may you may continue.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation is not to ask the question, because one of the things that Jesus taught us was we are often asking the wrong question.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation is into life abundant.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation is into life in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation is into so much more.
SPEAKER_00: As we begin our service, I read to you from Luke's Gospel chapter 23.
SPEAKER_00: And finally they came to a place called the Skull, and all three were crucified there.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus on the center cross and two criminals on either side.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Father, forgive these people because they don't know what they are doing.
SPEAKER_00: And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice, and the crowd watched, and the leaders laughed and scoffed.
SPEAKER_00: He saved others, they said, Let him save himself.
SPEAKER_00: Or if he is really God's chosen one, the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: The soldiers mocked him too by offering him a drink of sour wine.
SPEAKER_00: And they called out to him, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.
SPEAKER_00: A signboard was nailed to the cross above him with these words.
SPEAKER_00: This is the king of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, So you're the Messiah, are you?
SPEAKER_00: Prove it then, by saving yourself and save us too while you're at it.
SPEAKER_00: The other criminal protested.
SPEAKER_00: We deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to Jesus, Remember me when you come into your kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus replied, I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_00: On Christ the King Sunday, we remember this is where our king ends, up on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: Our king does not get an earthly throne.
SPEAKER_00: Our king shows us how to live differently when we as followers will become sacrificial in our love for others, when we as followers will follow the way of Jesus and say, My life is not my own.
SPEAKER_00: I belong to something greater.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning in the Gospels, while we read and we remember this beauty that Christ offers us, we also remember the incredible power of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells us, This is your superpower.
SPEAKER_00: You are people who can ask for forgiveness, receive it, but then people who can ask for others for their forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: I think it was Bonhoeffer, but there was one of the kind of the leaders in the church over the past 100 or so years, and uh there was a minister in his office, and he was an older minister, and he was saying how you know he's been giving his life for the gospel, and um things are have always been tough at his church, always been tough with his family, and now he was facing a physical ailment.
SPEAKER_01: And uh he said, I just I can't understand where's God and what what God is doing, because I've all I've ever done is give my life in service, and this is what I've experienced.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I think it was Bonafar said to him, What did you expect that was going to happen to you when you followed Christ?
SPEAKER_01: We're all gonna die.
SPEAKER_01: And really the goal would be that you die a thousand times before you die.
SPEAKER_01: And by that, I mean you die right on the side of the road when you want to complain about a non-blinking using individual.
SPEAKER_01: Or you want to uh uh exert your will over someone else, or you want your way, or when we learn to surrender.
SPEAKER_01: See, we have a different king.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the kings of this world, they're they're to be worshipped, and they have their kingdoms and they have their glory, and we bow to that, or we learn to bow in another way, a bow of service, a bow of surrender.
SPEAKER_01: And and and follower of Christ, I ask you, where do you expect this thing to go?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you expect riches and glory, you're gonna be really disappointed.
SPEAKER_01: But if you understand that I'm gonna learn to be a way better husband, a way better wife, a way better friend, a way better parent.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is that that will only happen through transformation, will only happen through surrender.
SPEAKER_01: So when we're worshiping the king, let's make sure we're worshiping the right king and we understand what it is that God is inviting us to.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's joy unspeakable.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not in the things that we thought would make us happy, and not in gathering for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: But really in service and surrender is a tremendous joy.
SPEAKER_01: And I want us to find it together as a congregation, as a family, as a friend, for us to really know who Christ is.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what we endeavor to do today, just talk about Christ the King, but maybe in a way we hadn't thought of before.
SPEAKER_00: And for us to expand our imagination and for us to allow the Holy Spirit to re-enchant to us and to show us the whole picture, because as much as we remember the crucifixion and we must not forget it, beloved, that's not the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: The point of that story is there will be a resurrection in your life too.
SPEAKER_00: Giving up of your false self or your ego, your own desires.
SPEAKER_00: There is a resurrection that God is promising, saying, when you give those up, you can live empowered by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You can live transformed, you can live in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: So I read to you from Colossians chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you.
SPEAKER_00: And we ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, that should also be our prayer for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: That we would have spiritual wisdom and understanding, then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Intentional pause.
SPEAKER_00: When you have spiritual understanding, the way that you live will always please the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And your lives will produce every kind of good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And all the while you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation here, and what the apostle is offering to us, is that we'll have a life that is rich in good works.
SPEAKER_00: We will be people who are known by our love for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And our love for Christ is tied to other, is tied to the other person, is tied to those who are the least of these, is tied to those who are hungry, to those who are in prison, to those who are outcasts.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus showed us, but you will grow as you know God better and better.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you would have all the endurance and patience you need, and may you be filled with joy.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, joy is the goal.
SPEAKER_00: That we would be able to see with our eyes wide open the pain and the sorrow of people around us and have a deep, settled joy, remembering this is not the end.
SPEAKER_00: There is hope, beloved, and there is joy tied to that hope.
SPEAKER_00: Always thanking the Father.
SPEAKER_00: This is the path to joy.
SPEAKER_00: That in our lives we would cultivate thankfulness, that in our lives we would train ourselves to see things that we have never seen before.
SPEAKER_00: And we do that by expressing thanks, by being aware of it, by paying attention to the details that God has put in creation around us, by listening to the voice of someone else hear and express their thankfulness, but always thanking the Father.
SPEAKER_01: You know, uh we have uh banana trees grown around in our property and they really kind of grow like weeds.
SPEAKER_01: And uh so I I gave one to my brother, and so he has a giant uh, because he's got this atrium in his house, two-story, he's got a giant banana tree in his house now, growing in St.
SPEAKER_01: Louis, you know.
SPEAKER_01: They grow anywhere, they'll grow in St.
SPEAKER_01: Louis even.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but uh but they got so crazy at my house I I I dig them up, uh and then there was all these like clumps, look like big giant uh radishes or something, I don't know, and uh with little roots growing off of them.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and my brother is like, you know, I took all I took those little things and spread them around and they grow in pots.
SPEAKER_01: And so we went all over my yard and we buried these things that we dug up.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we lopped the tops off of them, so they're just little clumps, you know?
SPEAKER_01: And and they they're they're just like any root ball you take out, normally you just ruin it, you know.
SPEAKER_01: It's just and we just buried these things, and all of a sudden, they're they're sprouting up everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: And and I think that the thing is, you know, my brother had to help me see, because I'm like, well, we dug them up, they're just garbage.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, they're not, you know, and there was life in those that I didn't see, I didn't I hadn't experienced and I didn't know.
SPEAKER_01: But I was around somebody that knew.
SPEAKER_01: My brother from St.
SPEAKER_01: Louis knew what for me to do with these Florida weeds, and so I put them all along the edge of my property, and now they're shooting up.
SPEAKER_01: And and I I just think to myself, now it's such a silly example, but I wanted you to kind of think of, you know, where maybe in your life you just you just don't know what you and you need God to help you discern what you're actually seeing because you see death, you see something that's useless, but it's not.
SPEAKER_01: There's life inside that.
SPEAKER_01: You just needed to put it in the right place and trust that in time that's gonna do what it's designed from its very core, from its very foundation of the earth, God has a plan and he has a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And so many of us we quit halfway or we look at the situation and we judge.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, and what do we talk about since we got here today?
SPEAKER_01: We need to stop that judging.
SPEAKER_01: And can we just sit back and watch God be amazing?
SPEAKER_01: And I can just let my light, even in the middle of what appears to be just a yard full of dead things, I could sit back and go, wait a minute, joy comes in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: There's going to be a new birth.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I talk about, and we're all so sad all the thousand times we have to die.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize that that means that there's a thousand and one resurrections?
SPEAKER_01: That God does something that you could have ever produced.
SPEAKER_01: There's a life that is that is so much better if we'll die to the one that we have.
SPEAKER_01: If we'll put that one seed in the ground, we can it can produce many.
SPEAKER_01: But we have to be willing to do that hard thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so many people are just stubborn and selfish, and we won't go that place.
SPEAKER_01: But if we'll serve our family in that way, we'll serve our community, we'll serve our God in that way, we're gonna see this world transform in our lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people who live in the light.
SPEAKER_00: For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and has transferred us to the kingdom of his dear son.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, this is one of my favorite verses.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to remind you that when things are not going as you please or as you thought it would go, I remind you, you have a kingdom transfer.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have to stay in the kingdom of this world.
SPEAKER_00: You can live as one, empowered by the other kingdom, that stay in that other reality.
SPEAKER_00: I went to the farmer's market one time, we're not intentionally talking about seeds, but I had a bunch of little kids, and there was a man who looked like he belonged at the farmer's market.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you can imagine this, but he had overalls on.
SPEAKER_00: And he had all these vegetables that still had dirt on them.
SPEAKER_00: And my children were asking, Did you grow this?
SPEAKER_00: And the man said, uh, no, actually I didn't.
SPEAKER_00: Which then had my look at the outfit that you're in.
SPEAKER_00: And you bring all these things, and he said, No, honey, I didn't grow this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I planted the seed and then I stood around long enough.
SPEAKER_00: In the same place, and he said, and then I took out what God did.
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking, isn't that what like we have these ideas?
SPEAKER_00: I grew this.
SPEAKER_00: No, you actually didn't.
SPEAKER_00: There was already everything in the seed that it needed.
SPEAKER_00: You just put it where it was supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: God sent the rain.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes when we miss the harvest, it's because we don't stay in the place long enough to see death come to life.
SPEAKER_00: And so there are times to move, kingdom transfer into God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: But beloved, patience is how we actually receive the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: You have been rescued from darkness and are transferred to the kingdom of his dear son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
SPEAKER_01: That's your favorite verse, eh?
SPEAKER_00: I know we're gonna get to lots of my favorite verse.
SPEAKER_00: But here is the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what your Christology is, but mine is that Christ is supreme.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't come up with this, but that above everything, Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is, that love is the most powerful things, and Jesus shows us who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
SPEAKER_00: Once we did not know what God was like, and now we do, because Jesus showed us.
SPEAKER_01: And we can know God because we're like, oh, who knows the mysteries of God?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus is showing us how God behaves.
SPEAKER_01: God behaves through love, through giving, through sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: So uh so uh oftentimes I feel like even with within Christianity, people are looking for another path.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and uh we're looking, sometimes I I I hear other Christians and they're we're they're just thinking that really transforces transformation is going to change if government changed.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I I I happen to know every time they would offer that to uh Jesus, he'd say, I want no part of that.
SPEAKER_01: That there's that that there's another kingdom and were to follow after Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not saying you shouldn't vote, I'm not saying you shouldn't uh Be uh a presence because again our light uh the his light shines through our lampstand.
SPEAKER_01: So we we we have to but but for us to depend on anything or for us to look anywhere else we really make a misstep because Christ is that witness and that example to us that we can know God.
SPEAKER_00: For through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.
SPEAKER_00: He made the things we cannot see and the things we cannot see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world, everything was created through him and for him.
SPEAKER_00: He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
SPEAKER_00: I love this verse too.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm part of creation, and there are times when I feel like I am unraveling and I feel like things are going haywire, and then I remember, oh, I'm not in charge of holding this all together.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is.
SPEAKER_00: All I have to do is surrender to stay in the place of love.
SPEAKER_00: He holds all things together.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body.
SPEAKER_00: He is the beginning supreme over all who rise from the dead, so he is first in everything.
SPEAKER_00: For God in all of his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: God in all of God's fullness was pleased to live in human form.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, our humanity is not to be despised, but honored.
SPEAKER_00: This is how our souls actually get to be here, is through our body.
SPEAKER_00: And for us to say, the invitation, how do I use my body to be the hands and feet of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: How do I use my body to say, this is what it looks like to love my neighbor?
SPEAKER_00: What does it look like for us to surrender, our living beings, and saying, This is what it looks like to merge with God and say, I am going to give Jesus my thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: I am going to join with the thoughts that Jesus has.
SPEAKER_00: This is the good news, beloved, that love has come and that love wins.
SPEAKER_00: We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend?
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church and the continued work of our podcast, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org, reminding you to like, follow, and subscribe.
SPEAKER_01: You know, in verse 18 it said that uh he's first.
SPEAKER_01: And and I I think um without, I mean, with all honor and respect to Christ, uh we uh uh I think sometimes in our Christianity have made Christ uh we're so focused on the God part of Christ that we have created a separation that a chasm that's too great for us to ever reach.
SPEAKER_01: I will never accomplish any things.
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, Christ said, Greater things you will do.
SPEAKER_01: So so somewhere there's a misunderstanding.
SPEAKER_01: And I have spent most of my life under the teaching of Christians telling me how I'm never going to be as good as Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I already know that.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't need that teaching, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but what what what I would like to hear is some teaching on how he's first uh on the example of how we can live on this earth, and that he has set a pattern for you to live, not a standard that you could never reach.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe that most of us really do uh settle into that thing with Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you know that well, that's Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Thank God he did that to save our souls, and that's why he had to do that, and that we're just gonna be over here messing up for the rest of our lives, instead of understanding that as we surrender to God, he's the firstborn of many.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That's including you.
SPEAKER_01: And you have uh his spirit that lives on the inside of you, his light shining, you're destined to make a difference, to make an impact, to be supernatural on this earth.
SPEAKER_01: But I think first we have to awaken to it.
SPEAKER_01: And I think the greatest plan, if I was your enemy, was I would get you to fall asleep to the fact that Christ lives on the inside of you and tremendous transformation could be awakened.
SPEAKER_01: You're looking at me awful funny.
SPEAKER_01: Like I have just lost my mind.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I'm finding it.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture tells us Christ in you, Christ in me, the hope of glory.
SPEAKER_00: Christ living through us, through our choices, through our thoughts, and through him, God reconciled everything to himself.
SPEAKER_00: I also love this verse.
SPEAKER_00: Through Jesus, God reconciled everything to himself.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, we are watching a great reconciliation, even if you can't see it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you this truth.
SPEAKER_00: Everything love is reconciling to itself.
SPEAKER_00: He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: This includes you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_00: Just in case we thought that was just a wide open schmear for somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: This includes you.
SPEAKER_00: You are reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_00: You are reconciled to love, you are reconciled to the true, the essence of who you were meant to be.
SPEAKER_00: You were once his enemies, separated by your evil thoughts and acts uh actions, but now he has reconciled you through himself, through the death of Christ in his physical body.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone's attention here, please.
SPEAKER_00: As a result, there's some clarity here for you.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you will feel incredible freedom when you read this with me.
SPEAKER_00: As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, I declare this truth over you.
SPEAKER_00: You are wholly innocent.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't make that up.
SPEAKER_00: I read it here.
SPEAKER_00: This is the hope for us that we are ones wholly innocent, beloved innocent, that we are ones whose sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: This is the new life.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to live our lives in guilt and shame for the past.
SPEAKER_00: We get to live in love.
SPEAKER_00: We get to live now as ones liberated and having the same thoughts that Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus prayed for you in John chapter 17, he said, Father, make them one like you and I are one, and let them know how much they are loved.
SPEAKER_00: That you love them the same way that you love me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus prayed that we would come to understand that we are loved the same way that God loves Jesus, and that you, beloved, are holy and that you are faultless.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to live your life and go every day with shame that keeps you repeating patterns.
SPEAKER_00: You can live lives as one's free.
SPEAKER_00: Free to live in love, free to connect with others, free to live past shame and to live a transformed life.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we're we're preaching this, but I wonder how many uh listening actually believe it.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we would believe that, we we will live differently.
SPEAKER_01: And and you know, for for you as a follower of Christ to waller in shame and guilt and and struggle with condemnation constantly is to really miss what reconciliation has been given to us.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, we kind of uh overall the struggle really is when we kind of have a who's in and who's out mentality.
SPEAKER_01: This says he's reconciled all.
SPEAKER_01: And then we and then we start nitpicking.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you did this, if you live this way, if you confess this, if you said this, if he's reconciled all, not everybody knows they are, and really, even of us who think we know, we don't fully know.
SPEAKER_01: So at what places you kind of knowing mean you're reconciled?
SPEAKER_01: Or has that been taken care of and for us to just follow and then begin to share that?
SPEAKER_01: And wouldn't that be a funner message to share somebody than hey, you're a terrible sinner, or hey, you're reconciled by God?
SPEAKER_01: Which message would you want to go around sharing?
SPEAKER_01: Which would be funner to hear if you were out there in the world?
SPEAKER_01: And the problem is we have made that message our job to point out how bad people are.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm convinced when you and your lost day, you knew exactly how bad you were.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't need any other Christians to point it out.
SPEAKER_01: What you needed to know was that there was a reconciliation and you didn't have to feel the way that you're feeling.
SPEAKER_01: And if I walked in that fully, I could share, that light would shine and I would share it fully.
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't be constantly then looking at their lifestyle and saying, well, maybe they're in, maybe they're out, or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Can I trust that if God says he reconciled, he did a good job?
SPEAKER_01: And he didn't miss your neighbor because he uses the wrong word.
SPEAKER_01: Or he acts a certain way.
SPEAKER_01: Was God bigger than your neighbor or your uh whoever's in your life that's the biggest stumbling block to you or struggle?
SPEAKER_01: Is God bigger?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, the message for us is joy if we would get out of the judging business.
SPEAKER_01: Because it turns out I can't be a good judge because I don't have all the facts.
SPEAKER_01: Only God has all the facts.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna leave him to the judgment business, and I'll do the part I'm supposed to do, and that's the letting my light shine before all.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: What do you think?
SPEAKER_00: Back to the illustration of the seeds.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if any of you have gardened with little children.
SPEAKER_00: It's a real blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And anyway, a lot of just change your expectations when you garden with children.
SPEAKER_00: I gardened with small children and we put the seeds in the ground and then we watered, and then I said, you have to wait.
SPEAKER_00: And about five minutes later, my children came back in with the seeds.
SPEAKER_00: We waited and it didn't work.
SPEAKER_00: That's funny, kind of.
SPEAKER_00: We do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: We tried that loving neighbor, it didn't work.
SPEAKER_00: And here we are with the dirty seeds in our hands.
SPEAKER_00: Leave it in the ground, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: There's a miracle gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: Leave it in the ground.
SPEAKER_00: So we put it back in the ground.
SPEAKER_00: Two days later, they came back in with the seeds.
SPEAKER_00: Still nothing is their report.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the judgment on the seeds.
SPEAKER_00: Still nothing.
SPEAKER_00: We've left it in the ground, we water it, still nothing.
SPEAKER_00: How often do we use that same kind of judgment against people?
SPEAKER_00: Still nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Put it in the ground, beloved, and believe the power that is there.
SPEAKER_00: As we get older, we don't necessarily pull up seeds anymore, looking for signs of life.
SPEAKER_00: But we trust that when we understand our own freedom and our own belovedness and we remind other people of theirs, if what if if the whole world could have the understanding that we do not have to live in condemnation, but we can live in the light of Christ, that we can live transformed, that we can live free, that there is hope for us.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, there will be so much joy among us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just go out and tell that news.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you why I speak with that authority.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus told us to tell everybody.
SPEAKER_00: This is the good news.
SPEAKER_00: He told people, go out and tell them the good news.
SPEAKER_00: You who were once in bondage, you're not there anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the key, let yourself out.
SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of us trap ourselves in prison.
SPEAKER_00: Prison of old memories and old ways of doing things and addictions that keep us in one place.
SPEAKER_00: And the invitation is change your thought.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus said to us: repent.
SPEAKER_00: Change the way that you're thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And the next part of the command is and turn to God.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you change the way that you're thinking, where is the turning?
SPEAKER_00: Where is the changing of the behavior?
SPEAKER_00: Not because we're trying to earn anything, but because we're coming back to love.
SPEAKER_00: We're coming back to hope.
SPEAKER_00: We're coming back to ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We who are once lost are now found.
SPEAKER_00: This is the beauty of love.
SPEAKER_00: This is what makes love eternal.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that was lost is found.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and to me, that's kind of like the dance, the thing that we do as followers of Christ as we're being transformed, because I do believe, and as a result of my believing, my behavior changes.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes my behavior is changing, and I'm not fully convinced.
SPEAKER_01: I don't fully believe.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm doing the thing.
SPEAKER_01: And as I'm doing the thing, I begin to get more confidence and my belief built up.
SPEAKER_01: So don't wait around until you fully believe to do.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you should just be nice to your spouse.
SPEAKER_01: And all the times you should be nice to your spouse.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: There's no there's no okay time for for yelling.
SPEAKER_01: There's no okay time for anger.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but you gotta understand, I said it three or four times.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta understand.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I can only take so much.
SPEAKER_01: Well, when you give yourself that excuse, then yeah, then you're gonna have this point.
SPEAKER_01: But what if we were kind all the time?
SPEAKER_00: It's possible, beloved, Jesus was.
SPEAKER_00: And he shows us what it's like for us to have extravagant technology.
SPEAKER_01: I feel it, they don't fully believe it, Heather.
SPEAKER_00: But that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's all right.
SPEAKER_01: We did it until we believed.
SPEAKER_00: That's the key.
SPEAKER_01: Or what if we believed it until we tried it and that's the dance?
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: We're just kind of going with this.
SPEAKER_01: But the it's it's I'm telling you, even if that cut out half of the fights, wouldn't that be beautiful?
SPEAKER_01: And what if one day it cut out all of that?
SPEAKER_01: Because we just, you know, there was a time, Heather and I've been married a long time.
SPEAKER_01: And but I remember even when it was 17 years, and that was a long time then, and now that's just a drop in the bucket.
SPEAKER_01: 30-something years now.
SPEAKER_01: But but when we were, I remember we kind of looked at each other and we said, you know what, fighting is a waste of time.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're gonna be married, we're we're committed.
SPEAKER_01: So why am I gonna bite with you and be mad at you?
SPEAKER_01: And so we've cut down our fighting to zero, except for during worship practice.
SPEAKER_01: It's our it's our Achilles seal, and all of you in the band get to witness it.
SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: You get to watch a marriage in progress.
SPEAKER_01: But I just mean that that we we did we just really did decide why we live like this?
SPEAKER_01: Why live fighting and angry?
SPEAKER_01: We both are passionate about something that's different, but wouldn't get curious about that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, why is this person that you love so against what you're doing?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's a blind spot that you have and you could trust that person.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm the man and I make the decisions.
SPEAKER_01: How about letting the person who's here and the Holy Ghost make the decisions?
SPEAKER_01: That isn't always a man.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: It's Advent's coming, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: Advent is coming.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to remind you, it was the Holy Spirit and a woman that got this whole thing started.
SPEAKER_01: I think we better get the car started to get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just I want us to begin to stir an expectation in us that God is gonna complete what He's begun in you.
SPEAKER_01: And that brokenness and that pain that causes you to behave in those ways, I don't want to live like that another minute, and I don't want it for you, and I know God doesn't want it for us.
SPEAKER_01: And so for us to learn that that obedience of surrender and that submission to that, sometimes it's so hard, but boy, I want you to eat the fruit of that joy that can happen.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to go around uh apologizing near as much as I used to.
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't say that witty thing that I think is really appropriate for that moment.
SPEAKER_01: Man, you can cut down your apologies in half by cutting your talking in half.
SPEAKER_01: And with that, I will yield the floor to the lady.
SPEAKER_00: Together we pray, Lord have mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for engaging and laughing with us, and sometimes it's really important for us to remember that there's joy.
SPEAKER_00: But I remind you of an ancient pathway.
SPEAKER_00: The ancient Israels, Israelites would say this: we will obey and then we will understand.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes in our society, we want to make it all right in our brain first.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if I let that person get in this way, then who will take care of me?
SPEAKER_00: Beloved God who is reconciling all things together in Christ Jesus will make sure.
SPEAKER_00: And there are great places for boundaries and therapists and for learning how to have communication without all the poison that we have put in it.
SPEAKER_00: And for us to learn how to respect ourselves and respect someone else.
SPEAKER_00: These are things that we learn.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that we do every time we come together in church, the intention is that we would learn how to love each other well.
SPEAKER_00: Because in loving others, we love ourselves.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I knew that there wasn't going to be a stop there.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't really an amen.
SPEAKER_01: We were counseling and we learned from our therapists or counselors or whoever, you know, that that your feelings are neither right or wrong.
SPEAKER_01: They're your feelings you need to share them.
SPEAKER_01: And this lady's tying in to her husband, and I'm sure he deserved it, but in the counseling appointment where, and I said, Well, you know, really it's about feelings, and you know, if you you know, that's neither right or you know, so let's don't attack.
SPEAKER_01: Just share how you're feeling, you know.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Well, I feel like he's an a-hole.
SPEAKER_01: And uh she didn't say that, but she said a little more expressive than but it but I made me laugh because I've bring the, you know, because we gotta learn that uh, you know, the uh and so it does sometimes take therapists for us because you've maybe created some habits where just I tell it like it is.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then you need to stop because that's painful for us to hear you saying it like it is, and and there's a there's a way that that so we were able to explain to her that's not what we mean by sharing your feelings, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Uh that's a judgment.
SPEAKER_01: You see the difference, you know.
SPEAKER_01: And so we do need that.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you maybe you're in a trap where the fighting doesn't stop and the the negativity and the self-criticism, it's just so overwhelming, that's all you hear.
SPEAKER_01: Let's less help you hear a different voice.
SPEAKER_01: And if it takes going to a therapist at a counselor or maybe coming to church, you know, uh, you know, on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh D I say that out loud.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, those kind of things surrounding ourselves with that brings the uh with it that transformation, amen.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh we might need to learn, and and so I I share that with you.
SPEAKER_01: It was a funny thing, but it but it was the fact that somebody had not been around, so the way that they were dealing.
SPEAKER_01: With their spouse is obviously going to have so much pain in it.
SPEAKER_01: Because we haven't learned, you know, that there's going to be some boundaries in the way we we communicate with each other.
SPEAKER_01: And so God bless you to learn those.
SPEAKER_01: And we do have to have boundaries, but but oftentimes it begins with just stop in this.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The apostle also tells us let everyone be quick to listen.
SPEAKER_00: Slow to speak.
SPEAKER_00: Slow to get angry.
SPEAKER_00: This is a way to live in love.
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: For us to be quick to listen.
SPEAKER_00: We listen to the Holy Spirit within us.
SPEAKER_00: We listen to the voice of love that tells us take a breath.
SPEAKER_00: Return to yourself and remember that you are God's beloved child.
SPEAKER_00: Scarcity is a lie.
SPEAKER_00: It is an illusion.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, beloved, that there is abundance.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever mercy you need today, God has it for you.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever grace that you're in need of, God has it for you.
SPEAKER_00: Another one of my favorite stories in the scripture is there are two people walking away from the crucifixion, and they're on the road to Emmaus, and their hearts are broken, and their faces are downcast, and they are having a conversation about how everything they expected did not turn out the way they thought it would.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the story, we're told by the teller of the story that Jesus appears next to them.
SPEAKER_00: If we were walking with our friends, we might not have recognized him as Jesus either.
SPEAKER_00: They walk on the road and Jesus begins to ask them questions.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, why are you so upset?
SPEAKER_00: And their question is, are you the only person who has no idea why we're upset?
SPEAKER_00: I love the actual dialogue here.
SPEAKER_00: You know where we're living?
SPEAKER_00: Have you seen the current events?
SPEAKER_00: This is what they're asking.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Well, tell me more about it.
SPEAKER_00: So they have this conversation as they go.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus begins to describe to them, and it says that he instructs them and tells them about God in a way that they never saw God before.
SPEAKER_00: May Jesus show up for you and explain to you and let you see things about God that maybe you never knew.
SPEAKER_00: It's getting toward the end of the day, and Jesus said, Well, it was nice talking to you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be gone.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, No, no, no, please don't, please don't, please come to dinner with us.
SPEAKER_00: Please come eat with us.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, read the story, it's great.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, I don't know, maybe, maybe not.
SPEAKER_00: And they say, no, please, we insist, please come to the house.
SPEAKER_00: Come eat with us.
SPEAKER_00: And so he relents.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll come and eat with you.
SPEAKER_00: And still they share stories.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we thought God was like, and Jesus would begin to tell them what God was like.
SPEAKER_00: And then they went to share the bread and the wine.
SPEAKER_00: And he took the bread and he broke it.
SPEAKER_00: And it said, and then their eyes were opened.
SPEAKER_00: And then they knew him as Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They knew him as the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: They knew him as the one who was bringing the good news.
SPEAKER_00: They knew him as the one that they were following.
SPEAKER_00: And he disappeared right before them.
SPEAKER_00: And they asked a question to each other: didn't our hearts burn within us?
SPEAKER_00: Didn't we know this was the good news?
SPEAKER_00: Didn't we know?
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, I believe your heart has burned within you.
SPEAKER_00: You knew that there was something more, that there is something bigger, that there is something more expansive, that there is enough love for everyone.
SPEAKER_00: And that you are holy and blameless as you stand before God without a single fault.
SPEAKER_00: We're about to participate.
SPEAKER_00: We're about to embody holy communion together.
SPEAKER_00: And what I want to remind you is when you come to the table of the Lord, you are coming holy, innocent, because Christ has already forgiven your sins.
SPEAKER_00: You are already forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has already paid the price.
SPEAKER_00: There is hope for us in the communion table.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org.