SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.
SPEAKER_01: This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, Florida.
SPEAKER_01: Would you read with us the words of Jesus this morning?
SPEAKER_01: God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for Him, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
SPEAKER_01: God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
SPEAKER_01: God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
SPEAKER_01: God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
SPEAKER_01: God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.
SPEAKER_01: God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
SPEAKER_01: I remind us, these are the beatitudes.
SPEAKER_01: These are the way or the path that Jesus shows us what it is going to look like when heaven interrupts, when the kingdom comes here, when what is done in heaven is also done here on earth.
SPEAKER_01: This morning on the very last Sunday after Epiphany is the sermon that comes to us and reminds us of the transfiguration of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And it has a lot to do with light.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll understand at the end why we're talking about light.
SPEAKER_01: Again, the Epiphany light of Christ, the light that shows people how to come back to God.
SPEAKER_01: In this season, we look at light.
SPEAKER_01: And last week I remind you that Jesus said, You are the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: How you live in love matters.
SPEAKER_01: How you live matters because then people can see how they themselves can return to themselves and to God that lives in us.
SPEAKER_01: And so we read today from Matthew's account of this.
SPEAKER_01: After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
SPEAKER_01: And in reading this, we recognize that mountaintop experiences are something that culturally the people there really associated with God.
SPEAKER_01: Moses went up to the mountain, had an experience with God.
SPEAKER_01: When Moses came down from the mountain, people said, Ooh, his face is really shiny.
SPEAKER_01: There's these indications that when you're in the presence of God, when you stay in the presence of God, that light is emanating or that light is evidence.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to the people that were around him and following him, saying, You are the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: You spend time in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: You spend time in the presence of love.
SPEAKER_01: And then allow the love that is in your life to shine forth and show God.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus leads his friends.
SPEAKER_01: Again, we spent a couple of weeks talking about, he went to their brother and said, Come and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: This is what it looks like to follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And these are the same people that he invited to follow him, and now he's asking them to come up to the mountain.
SPEAKER_01: And he was transfigured before them.
SPEAKER_01: And his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.
SPEAKER_01: And he was transfigured before them.
SPEAKER_01: In some translations it says, and right before them Jesus appeared as Jesus always was, but they saw something different.
SPEAKER_01: In the Greek, it is the word that we use from the metamorphosis.
SPEAKER_01: Very often, what we need is our eyes to be healed, so we can see Jesus as Jesus truly is.
SPEAKER_01: What the world needs is for our collective eyes to be healed, so that we can see the light that is Christ, so that we can see the hope that is given to us in the world.
SPEAKER_01: And it says that he was transfigured right before them, his face shone like the sun, his clothes became white as light.
SPEAKER_01: I remind you, because most of us have read the story, this is really similar language to in the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see this setting us up for this Linton experience.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to uh to ask ourselves, like, you know, why would we read this if it doesn't pertain to us?
SPEAKER_00: Like, why would we take this time in the service to just read this story?
SPEAKER_00: Uh and and I think a lot of times religion has kind of uh almost tricked us into uh we talk about Jesus, but there's really nothing in his life that's ever going to manifest in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did all he did just to get you into heaven and fix fix all your mess-ups, but but why would we read about the transfiguration unless there's some way that maybe, do you ever think maybe you could be transformed in a supernatural way?
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever think about that?
SPEAKER_00: The light?
SPEAKER_00: Because you you are called the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if your uh, you know, Moses went up to the mountain, Jesus went and spent this time, and then people testify, you they begin to see the light.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what if you and I just realize that spending that time with spirit changes something literally inside of us and we begin to glow.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't want to make Heather feel uncomfortable, but I want you to know that I I I hope to be seeing that in my life a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing it in a tremendous way in my wife.
SPEAKER_00: I literally will wake up some nights and I can feel our bed vibrating.
SPEAKER_00: And I look over and I don't think, is she sleeping?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: She's just there praying in the presence of God, and transformation is happening.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm witnessing it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm jealous of it, but jealous, inspired in a good way to surrender as well.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's, you know, I I think so much of the time we we tend to see people like my wife, and we go, well, that's just them.
SPEAKER_00: That's just the way they do it.
SPEAKER_00: And the rest of us, well, we couldn't have that.
SPEAKER_00: God's got a favorite.
SPEAKER_00: What if this is offered to all of us transformation?
SPEAKER_00: What if Jesus wasn't just an anomaly, but he was an example?
SPEAKER_00: What if what if he is who and what he said he was a path?
SPEAKER_00: Then if I begin to walk down that path, I'll begin to see some of those things.
SPEAKER_00: Greater things will we do than he did, he said.
SPEAKER_00: How's that possible?
SPEAKER_00: Unless I be and you be transformed, amen.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe there's a hope that God has for us that we don't even have for ourselves, that we've been lured somehow into sleep to not seeing the potential of what's offered to us.
SPEAKER_01: And the beauty of what this scripture witnesses to us is an invitation.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so grateful that you reminded us of that, is that our eyes would be healed, that we would begin to see things as they truly are.
SPEAKER_01: Because here, these these apostles or these witnesses, these disciples are here and they see something differently.
SPEAKER_01: They've been with Jesus, they've been fishing with Jesus, they've been hanging out with Jesus, but now they see Jesus bright and shiny, and now they see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, and they recognize the holy and they see the eternal and they're honored to be able to say, Oh my gosh, look what we are invited into.
SPEAKER_01: And then Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here.
SPEAKER_01: I do love Peter because he states the obvious a lot and he talks too much.
SPEAKER_01: He really does.
SPEAKER_01: I don't I say that because the Holy Spirit's gonna stop that in just a minute with him.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's a couple more times where he just keeps talking and then the Holy Spirit keeps interrupting.
SPEAKER_01: Just that's a practice for us, maybe in Lenten uh time, not to talk so much.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is there, Elijah is there, Moses is there, and Peter starts declaring he knows what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: That's a real um, that's that takes a lot to be able to say, I know that it's good that we're here.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and and then he says, if you wish, I have a plan.
SPEAKER_01: And here is where most of us get into trouble.
SPEAKER_01: We experience the holy, we experience the invitation into the sacred and then divine, and then we start scheming, and we start making plans, and we start saying, Oh, I know how this is gonna benefit me.
SPEAKER_01: I'll make a tabernacle here.
SPEAKER_01: We will stay up here with Moses and Elijah and Jesus and here where there's no pain and no one is needed, and we'll just stay in this glory place.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'll do: I'll experience this, and then I'll make a plan for my prophet.
SPEAKER_01: No one else has ever done that.
SPEAKER_01: I will experience this, and then I will make a plan so that it's good for me.
SPEAKER_01: And he was still speaking.
SPEAKER_01: I love this about God because when we just talk too much, the Holy Spirit will interrupt.
SPEAKER_01: I remind you, this happens when Peter is gonna go to Cornelius' house.
SPEAKER_01: An angel has appeared and said, Go and tell them about the resurrection, and Peter's like, I really shouldn't.
SPEAKER_01: We're not allowed to go to those kind of people's houses.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to remind you, anytime those people's houses, that's you, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: You're there, we're all one.
SPEAKER_01: There is no us in them.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit, though, Peter starts talking and saying, I want to tell you about the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit's like, everybody gets the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit falls on all of them.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone included, this beautiful inclusion by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And so the same thing is happening here.
SPEAKER_01: He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.
SPEAKER_01: This is light.
SPEAKER_01: Light comes.
SPEAKER_01: And the voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to him.
SPEAKER_01: And when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
SPEAKER_01: I love that part too.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we talk a big talk about God, and we tell people how we know God, and then when we actually hear God, it should terrify us because we realize not that we are in trouble, not that God is vengeful, but that we just don't know what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: And so the terror comes in, I don't know what I'm actually experiencing.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the invitation into Christian life, beloved, that we would come to know that we don't know.
SPEAKER_01: We're invited into a holy mystery.
SPEAKER_01: We're invited to be people who learn how to love well and how to love neighbor and how to love enemy and how we are the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: But when the disciples hear this, they fall on their faces and are terrified.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's so many things that we think that we ought to do, you know, and that's where I think Peter uh got in some trouble there and what we do.
SPEAKER_00: And like in the Slinton season, maybe you're familiar with it from being part of a denomination before or whatever, and in and you uh you associate it with maybe just on Fridays you don't eat meat uh or or some some level of fasting, you know, that and and we kind of with religion get the idea that uh you know that we punish ourselves a little bit or make some kind of sacrifice, and God's like, good, they're hungry.
SPEAKER_00: I've got or they got they got no meat, good.
SPEAKER_00: You know, make them eat some fish for a while, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Uh somehow God's like, that's that's what his plan is, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think that we're so far off on that I don't think God wants us to eat any of his animals, but that's a whole nother sermon.
SPEAKER_00: But uh uh I think that what we do is we just get these great ideas and tell God this is what I'm gonna do for you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and and we've really been looking at this, and I just asked you to consider uh what if maybe this Linton season you could go, I'm gonna get behind what they're saying, and I'm gonna give something up.
SPEAKER_00: But instead of uh giving up something that I like, I think I'll give up something that I despise and everybody around me hates when I do it.
SPEAKER_00: My kids hate when I get angry.
SPEAKER_00: My wife, it hurts her heart and it scares her because she doesn't know what I'm gonna do and what she has to fix in everybody's heart when I go through being the old man and I'm gonna.
SPEAKER_00: What if I could go?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'll just give that up.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if God would like that more than me just eating some fish on Friday.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if that would help the world a lot more than just the cow that goes, thank you for Friday.
SPEAKER_00: What if it really was something you could look at?
SPEAKER_00: What if what if shame drives you?
SPEAKER_00: And what if you could say, I just wanna, I wanna give it up?
SPEAKER_00: What would my life be like if I if I understood what fasting was really for?
SPEAKER_00: That it's for my benefit, not to impress anyone or impress God.
SPEAKER_00: What if we could maybe not be like Peter and just, well, I'm gonna build this temple because I think that's the religious thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll pop up these tents and and then we'll just remember this.
SPEAKER_00: And that'll be good, right, God?
SPEAKER_00: Is that what you want?
SPEAKER_00: What if what if God wants to us to be transformed and want something completely different, but our ideas so block it?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I do need to fast.
SPEAKER_00: Stop doing everything I want when I want, and just slow down and wait and find out what spirit would have for me to do.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: So let's think about that when we when we talk about fasting, and and what are some things, what if you gave them up and it wasn't the sacrifice that God was after, but what if it was Can we talk for a second about how hard it is to give things up, especially things that you're used to doing?
SPEAKER_01: Patterns of thinking.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the kind of things that we're asking you to consider giving up.
SPEAKER_01: Not giving up chocolate or coffee or things that please you.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what Jesus ever asked us to do.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Die to ego, die to your way of doing things.
SPEAKER_01: Pick up your cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: It's about love, cruciformed-shaped love.
SPEAKER_01: But when Jesus looked at a crowd of people, he said, Are you tired?
SPEAKER_01: Are you worn out?
SPEAKER_01: Are you tired of religion that just puts heavy things on you?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, Then come and follow me, and I will show you how to live freely and lightly, and I will show you how to move in the unforced rhythms of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, that sounds like a better way of living.
SPEAKER_01: To live in the movement of grace, to live and fully live.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, one of the reasons that Jesus came, and Jesus says this to us, I have come that you would have life and have it to the full.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, are you experiencing the fullness of life?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, are you really?
SPEAKER_01: Do you have so much joy that you live in only abundance?
SPEAKER_01: Do you only see the beauty in the world?
SPEAKER_01: And this is an invitation for us that we can co-create, that Jesus is inviting us into.
SPEAKER_01: And so the invitation is give up things that are keeping you small.
SPEAKER_01: Give up things that tell you your voice doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: Give up things that keep you separate from anyone.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is the great eraser.
SPEAKER_01: There, in fact, we're gonna practice at the end of service, just in case you just want this part to be done.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just telling you, we're gonna have holy communion, and everyone's invited to the table.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you if there's any practice that we have at all, the communion table is holy and it is a mystery, and it is a practice in liberation.
SPEAKER_01: And this hope for us is at the table that everyone gets to have bread and wine because Jesus has set the table for us.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that stops us, and so the invitation is to live our lives that way too.
SPEAKER_01: The things that hinder us, the things that keep us held back so that our lights do not shine, the things that keep us apart from people.
SPEAKER_01: Give up those things.
SPEAKER_01: And in giving up, I remind you, it's not just a one-time decision.
SPEAKER_01: Because giving up looks like doing it all the time, every day.
SPEAKER_01: Giving up looks like over and over again, and it also looks a lot like what Mary Magdalene called us to, to return to the good.
SPEAKER_01: This practice of, so you gave up and then you took it back.
SPEAKER_01: It's a lot like fly fishing.
SPEAKER_01: I've never done it, but I've seen it done.
SPEAKER_01: Have you seen it done?
SPEAKER_01: They throw it and then they just reel it back in, and they throw it and they reel it back in.
SPEAKER_01: They do this all day.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes that's what we do with our worry.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus said, Cast your worries upon me, I have worry, and then I'm like, I don't need to worry about this.
SPEAKER_01: God told me what to do, and I give it to him, and then about two seconds later, back to worrying.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's this practice of giving up the anger or giving up the diminishment or giving up whatever it is that separates me from my fellow person as many times as you need to re-surrender it, do it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I believe in transformation.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that God wants to do something inside myself.
SPEAKER_00: And so I stand here not just as your teacher uh at all.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be that.
SPEAKER_00: I I recognize that that uh that that's what the Holy Spirit does.
SPEAKER_00: I I just want to be maybe like a witness or an example or point you to something, and I just and I share this just for my own personal walk.
SPEAKER_00: And it's and it's that um I I see that God has this place of comfort and rest, and I don't live in it as much as and near as much as I could.
SPEAKER_00: And then I see that I I pick up things that I don't need and I hold on to them when I know better.
SPEAKER_00: I know I've been instructed to let go.
SPEAKER_00: I sometimes doom scroll and I sit down in a chair and I just start going on my phone and I know better, and I know I'm not gonna find something in two hours that's gonna change my life.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but the little short bump of uh what's that, what's that uh you get the dopamine rush, and it goes to the next one, and and then I look up and two and a half hours went by.
SPEAKER_00: I'm literally physically aching because I haven't moved in my body, and the blood, I don't know, whatever, but it's like I'm uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: And and then I realize uh I wasted that time, and so there, yeah, there's a fast, there's a discomfort.
SPEAKER_00: I have to go, I have to put that flesh down, but I can set right in my living room, I don't have to go anywhere, I can be present with spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And I can, and and so as I do that, I feel I feel shame melt away, guilt, just fall to the wayside.
SPEAKER_00: And and hope begins to restore.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's so much that needs to be changed about it, but I'm but I'm actually pulling up to the the the filling station.
SPEAKER_00: Back in when I was a kid, there was filling stations and they they had bays in there, and you'd pull your car in there and they'd lift them up and they'd begin to work on your vehicle right there.
SPEAKER_00: And I just I feel like I'm in that place, and and I'm just present with God, and there's a work, and I don't know what's going on on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what all needs to be uh, some of it needs to be repaired, a lot of it needs to be replaced.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And and I and then I was and I was realizing not only do I do scroll, but I I I uh that's a metaphor for my my past.
SPEAKER_00: God showed me something this week, maybe this will make sense to you, but it did to me.
SPEAKER_00: I've been mining in my past, and trust me when I say there is no gold there, so I need to quit digging.
SPEAKER_00: That's for me.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you like it, praise God.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna tell you something that I spent so much time doom scrolling in my past.
SPEAKER_00: What's that about?
SPEAKER_00: Because God's not in my past.
SPEAKER_00: God's not even in my future.
SPEAKER_00: But he promised to be right here in my present.
SPEAKER_00: And he is.
SPEAKER_00: So that's where I need to engage.
SPEAKER_00: And I need to just sit there.
SPEAKER_00: And do you know that every time I'm I'm thinking I'm in present and I'm thinking about God, I'm I'm not yelling at my children or my wife or or anyone or anyone in traffic.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm present.
SPEAKER_00: It's when I get in the my future, man, I gotta get there in time.
SPEAKER_00: What time?
SPEAKER_00: The time I made up that I said I had to be there by because I like to be 10 minutes earlier.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not on time at all.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm in that weird thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because in the past I felt bad when I was late, and so I can't be, you know, and so now I'm yelling at everyone on the street.
SPEAKER_00: What a wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just be present right now?
SPEAKER_00: I wanna I wanna do that so much.
SPEAKER_00: I want to lay that stuff down.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not saying a phone, you know, you could argue if you want to hang on to it.
SPEAKER_00: Well.
SPEAKER_00: The phone's good, you know, it keeps my day planner.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's uh, you know, you can argue all you want.
SPEAKER_00: But you and I know when it's time.
SPEAKER_00: Put it down.
SPEAKER_01: But that's a liturgical book.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, not this.
SPEAKER_00: We wouldn't put this out.
SPEAKER_01: You pick that right up.
SPEAKER_01: That's a that's prayers that you could pray.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we need something in our hands to help us with the focus.
SPEAKER_01: And the invitation is to lay down anything that hinders, but to enjoy presence that is right now.
SPEAKER_01: We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_01: If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend?
SPEAKER_01: This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you.
SPEAKER_01: 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: I want to remind you, be all of us, because sitting in the presence, sometimes that feels funny to people, or they're like, I don't even know how to do that.
SPEAKER_01: But what about being present with the person that you're right in front of?
SPEAKER_01: C.
SPEAKER_01: S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis reminds us of this that no one has been in the presence of a mere mortal.
SPEAKER_01: Every single one of us bears the image of the divine.
SPEAKER_01: What if you were fully present with the person that you were with?
SPEAKER_01: What if you weren't projecting how things were gonna go, but you were sitting in the presence of that person and recognizing the image of God in them?
SPEAKER_01: The disciples are terrified, they're panicked.
SPEAKER_01: Now remember, they weren't there at the baptism of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We're looking at this going, oh, I already heard that.
SPEAKER_01: Did you though?
SPEAKER_01: Did you already hear God say, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased?
SPEAKER_01: And in this part, in the transfiguration, he adds, listen to him.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder if you came this morning and you said, I need a word from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm telling you what the word of the Lord already is for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to Jesus, listen to the way that Jesus told us how to live.
SPEAKER_01: Once we didn't know what God looked like, but now we do because God showed us through Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus shows us what God is and how to live.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus came and he touched them.
SPEAKER_01: I love this about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's a whole other sermon, but maybe you could look it up.
SPEAKER_01: How often Jesus, in the presence of someone, touches them.
SPEAKER_01: It's connection.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just I'm standing here and telling you what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Rise and have no fear.
SPEAKER_01: This is such a beautiful part of the scripture, and we won't get to all of it this week.
SPEAKER_01: And spoiler alert, they're coming down the mountain after they have this experience.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, hey, don't talk to anyone about what you saw there until you see the Son of Man resurrected.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't understand that until we see the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: And once we see the resurrection, we still don't understand it.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit is there.
SPEAKER_01: But what if we didn't have such a pressure that we have to talk about our experiences or what we know about God?
SPEAKER_01: What if we could just live like just startled in wonderment of Jesus that is with us, Jesus that we saw feeding the 5,000, Jesus that was there when the woman needs her son brought back to life, whatever the conflict was, whatever the terror is, Jesus is there providing comfort, and Jesus shows us how to live.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, Rise and have no fear.
SPEAKER_01: In 2 Peter, for we do not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.
SPEAKER_01: For he received honor and glory from God the Father, that when the voice was conveyed to him by the majestic glory, saying, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.
SPEAKER_01: So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed, and you will do well to be attentive to this as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, this is so beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: This invitation that Peter said, that there is a light that will rise in you.
SPEAKER_01: There is an understanding that will come in you.
SPEAKER_01: Pay attention, be attentive to the light that is returning in you.
SPEAKER_01: And first of all, you must understand this that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation.
SPEAKER_01: Because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
SPEAKER_01: So there's this invitation that it is what the Spirit tells us to do, what the Spirit instructs us to do, that is what we are asked to follow.
SPEAKER_01: How is the Spirit telling us to be more loving?
SPEAKER_01: What is the Spirit asking us to be more loving, maybe toward ourselves?
SPEAKER_01: To the harm that we do to ourselves, to give that up and go, what is it like to honor the Christ in me, the love that is in me?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've heard teachers greater uh than uh than us by all um forms of measurement, and they they've said before that you know Jesus didn't go do those great works until after he heard the Father say, This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: And for the disciples, for them to to really recognize who Jesus was and for them to go uh on in their ministry, they they needed to hear that uh that God was well pleased with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe that uh, and this is what uh I I heard taught and just bore witness with me, and tell me what you think about it, that the the idea that, you know, are you really going to get free in this life and really move on where God has you ever until you realize you're just loved.
SPEAKER_00: You're God's daughter, and he's well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: You're God's son, and he's well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: And then that's just because we we hear that and go, and and I I don't necessarily recommend you watch the movie Goodwill Hunting unless you're ready for a cuss fest.
SPEAKER_00: But I will say this to you there's a scene where Robin Williams holds Matt Damon's character and he says to him, uh, it's not your fault.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, I know, I know.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, It's not your fault.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, You mess, stop messing with me.
SPEAKER_00: He was a violent guy and it was close, like he could have just turned and beat him.
SPEAKER_00: But he just held him.
SPEAKER_00: He said, It's not your fault.
SPEAKER_00: And he began to cry.
SPEAKER_00: Because you saw that breakthrough, and that breakthrough moves me, and it would move anybody that watches that show because that's humanity.
SPEAKER_00: That's the truth.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is, until I realize that I am not the carrier of blame.
SPEAKER_00: That God sees no fault in you.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but and we all do that, what that character did so well in that in that act out.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I know, I know.
SPEAKER_00: No, you don't know, because if you knew, there would be a light in you that is tried, that the enemy has tried to distinguish and put out.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not out, it can never be put out.
SPEAKER_00: And for us, if we would only recognize it, we wouldn't miss the present.
SPEAKER_00: We wouldn't miss what it is that God has for us.
SPEAKER_00: And don't feel bad.
SPEAKER_00: This is what is it like?
SPEAKER_00: Just progressive.
SPEAKER_00: As we move on, walk, we'll we're being transformed into the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jesus invites us to do.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'll invite you to repent.
SPEAKER_01: And repentance doesn't mean saying you're sorry, repentance means changing your mind.
SPEAKER_01: And the invitation is change your mind about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Change your mind about the world, change your mind about every person that you see.
SPEAKER_01: Change your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Change your mind and recognize we are made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: We are made of love.
SPEAKER_01: We are made not just in the image of God, we're meant to carry the image of God, and we are ones worthy of God's love.
SPEAKER_01: If you are worthy of God's love, are you not worthy of your own love?
SPEAKER_01: Are you not worthy of your neighbor's love?
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jesus is asking us to remember that love is the way, that gratitude is the path that brings us from these places.
SPEAKER_01: I read to you this morning from 1 Timothy chapter 6, for at just the right time Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and the only Almighty God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read that again because I hope what happened to you happen is the same thing that happened to me.
SPEAKER_01: It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read it again.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to feel this.
SPEAKER_01: This is an invitation.
SPEAKER_01: For at just the right time, Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and almighty God, the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords.
SPEAKER_01: He alone can never die, and he lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him.
SPEAKER_01: No human eye has ever seen him, nor ever will.
SPEAKER_01: All honor and power to him alone forever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Teach those who are rich in the world.
SPEAKER_01: This is the next part after he says, God is coming, Christ is returning, the Almighty One will reveal him by this incredible light.
SPEAKER_01: And now teach those that are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable.
SPEAKER_01: Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.
SPEAKER_00: I don't see how that verse applies to us today.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm gonna go into the next verse.
SPEAKER_01: Tell them to use their money to do good.
SPEAKER_01: They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others.
SPEAKER_01: And by doing this, they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life.
SPEAKER_01: Will you make a confession with me this morning?
SPEAKER_01: As a congregation, we follow the words of Scripture, and this is one of the generosity liturgies that we participate in, and so, if you would with me, from these scriptures, godliness with contentment is great gain.
SPEAKER_01: We bring nothing into this world and we take nothing out of it.
SPEAKER_01: We who call Jesus Lord devote ourselves to resisting greed, which plunges the human heart into ruin and pierces it with many griefs.
SPEAKER_01: We are determined to practice generosity with free hearts, fixing our hopes on God and not the uncertainty of wealth.
SPEAKER_01: We desire to be rich in good deeds and are willing to share all that we have, laying up for ourselves treasures that will not decay, but will shine in the age to come.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We are about to do Can I just interject something there?
SPEAKER_00: Because I do think that we really get in the sweet by-and-by on this whole, you know, paring down and living simple and generosity and giving away, that we do really, really put it all in the yeah, you're gonna have to deny yourself now, but one day in heaven you're gonna have like just a bunch of nice stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Like all the stuff you gave away gets tucked on a shelf in heaven or something.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want that garbage anyway.
SPEAKER_00: And it was good to get rid of it, but it was good to get rid of it now, and it's good to give have the practice of giving it now because it benefits you now.
SPEAKER_00: It benefits us now to be generous.
SPEAKER_00: It bit to stop being greedy is such an unquenchable hunger and thirst.
SPEAKER_00: It's a slave master, and we're miserable who fall under its spell.
SPEAKER_00: And so if I preach to you, give, and one day in heaven you're gonna restore up riches, although the scripture says that, but what is the riches it's storing up?
SPEAKER_00: It's it's riches that I can have right now.
SPEAKER_00: The riches of not being subject to this economy, not so controlled and influenced by everything that's going on in this world, that I can be controlled by spirit, not by the flesh, not by every whim.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I got this thing over here, and it's called a helix.
SPEAKER_00: And ten years ago, it was the greatest thing to ever happen to guitar play.
SPEAKER_00: It is thousands of guitar amps.
SPEAKER_00: I just pick which one I want, and then you push a button and it becomes thousands of guitar pedals, whichever one I want.
SPEAKER_00: And if the song changes, so does that.
SPEAKER_00: And I have, and I go, wow, once I get that.
SPEAKER_00: And I sold Heather on it.
SPEAKER_00: You should have heard the sales pitch.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it could have, it made Glenn Gary Glenn Ross look like a, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this was something.
SPEAKER_00: And since then, all the things that have come out, Heather, all the things that we need that will make our ministry better, will make our life, no.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's at some point what I have is good, and what I have can never be as great as the whole that is in me through that greed and desire.
SPEAKER_00: But what I can be full of is the light and the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: And this has come from someone preaching who has no idea how to live what I just said.
SPEAKER_00: But I have some idea.
SPEAKER_00: But between that and practice is just is where I'm going as I step out of this pulpit in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Practice.
SPEAKER_00: But I know it's right, and you know it's right too.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Practice.
SPEAKER_01: Practice is that's what Lent is for us.
SPEAKER_01: Right now we're in the season of time where the Olympics are on, the winter Olympics, and oh, I love the Olympics.
SPEAKER_01: I just, I so value all these people who have trained so hard for something.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to remind us there is a difference between trying and training.
SPEAKER_01: I skied one time in Czechoslovakia in the Tatra Mountains.
SPEAKER_01: And I did downhill skiing one time.
SPEAKER_01: I went down the hill too, but Well, you weren't with me at that particular time.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know but I was rolling when I went down.
SPEAKER_01: Because I went when I was still in another uh I went skiing in the Tatra Mountains in Czechoslovakia in the winter in a skirt because I was sure that's how God was pleased.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, so we all do things that we uh we shouldn't do.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm just telling to you, it was now beautiful, nobody wanted to see it.
SPEAKER_01: It was an experience for me, I loved it, it was one and done.
SPEAKER_01: But I watch these people who have not just tried it like I did, but trained for it.
SPEAKER_01: What they can make their bodies do, oh, it's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: And what a gift it is to be able to bring it with somebody else who also has trained, and then together they make these beautiful, it's just wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, this is kind of what coming to church is like, or it should be.
SPEAKER_01: This is more like a dojo or somebody that where you learn and you train to do something, and then you go out and you actually do it.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, we train here to learn how to love like Christ, but then we take it and we go into the world and we're supposed to love like Christ would love.
SPEAKER_01: We're supposed to honor the things.
SPEAKER_01: And so many times people have said to Jesus and the disciples, not Philip Leopard, who is sitting here, but Philip the disciple, who said to Jesus, Hey, a lot of people are hungry, what are you gonna do about it?
SPEAKER_01: We do that to Jesus a lot still as followers.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, there's a lot of people who need peace, what are you gonna do about it?
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus looks right at Philip and says, Hey, what are you gonna do about it?
SPEAKER_01: And the invitation is, what's in your hand?
SPEAKER_01: And Philip goes, Philip the disciple, I don't know what to do because we don't have anything.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus says to him, Ask around.
SPEAKER_01: Ask around.
SPEAKER_01: And then nobody knows that anything's gonna happen except there was a woman.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna retell this story because this is how it should be told.
SPEAKER_01: There was a woman who had a son who was gonna go hear Jesus, and she said, He's probably gonna get hungry, so I'm gonna pack a lunch.
SPEAKER_01: And she didn't put in there an uncrustable, she put in there fish and loaves because that's what they had.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's what she had already prepared.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't get the bread, the wonder bread from the store.
SPEAKER_01: She actually made the bread, or her neighbor made the bread, and they traded, however.
SPEAKER_01: But there was bread and there was fish, and she gave it to her son to prepare for this day.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if everybody else didn't prepare, I don't know if it I don't know, I cannot judge.
SPEAKER_01: But there was a woman who prepared, and she gave the fish and loaves to her son.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter and Philip and John and Jesus and all the people there, they're all looking at these people are hungry.
SPEAKER_01: Ask around, who has something we can eat?
SPEAKER_01: And the boy goes, My mom gave me fish and bread.
SPEAKER_01: You're welcome to those.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta appreciate this too.
SPEAKER_01: That he gave it away, the little that he had, because he knew his mom had more.
SPEAKER_01: This was not the last meal that he was gonna eat.
SPEAKER_01: He was willing to give because he knew he could go home and that there would be more fish and loaves.
SPEAKER_01: And they bring the fish and loaves to Jesus and he gives thanks for them.
SPEAKER_01: He gives thanks for them.
SPEAKER_01: And then he gives it out and it multiplies, and it's this miracle in front of everybody, enough for everyone to eat, including leftovers, including ways to feed other people.
SPEAKER_01: And the invitation is, beloved, what is in your hand?
SPEAKER_01: What has already been given to you?
SPEAKER_01: What love do you already have?
SPEAKER_01: How can you give that away?
SPEAKER_01: What peace do you already have?
SPEAKER_01: How do you offer that to the world?
SPEAKER_01: What joy, what what hope do you have that you can give to someone else?
SPEAKER_01: Very often we're waiting for God to come for Jesus to come and fix the things.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, you fix them.
SPEAKER_01: Not the whole world, but your neighbor who needs a loaf and fish, the person next to you who needs your compassion or needs your help.
SPEAKER_01: The invitation is what is in your hand, do it now and bring it to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I would just piggyback on what Heather said that uh, you know, that's training.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder how much of our lives have just been trying to be Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we tried it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we tried praying, and you know, uh, because you know, there's there's a trying to put this down, and then there's a training to stop doom scrolling.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: There's a trying to stop those negative thoughts, and then there's a a training in this.
SPEAKER_00: And so I I would just invite you to to the dojo or to the gym.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm gonna go there and work out.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is what I this is what I want more than anything, is I want to I want to really learn to surrender, and I see the promise that God's given me, but he's given it to all of us, and so it's laying there.
SPEAKER_00: Are we going to stop allowing all the distractions of this life and this world keep us away from what God has for us?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it does cost something.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it costs you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm maybe not gonna find out what's gonna happen to those cats when they're running from, you know, or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, you know, it's gonna cost me something.
SPEAKER_00: But boy, what the promise of what could be if I would allow myself to be trained and disciplined in these things.
SPEAKER_01: The promise is that we could become like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, follow me, and I'll show you what it's like to live freely and lightly.
SPEAKER_01: I'll show you what it's like to love every part of your humanity and bring them all back together in the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon.
SPEAKER_01: If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org.