So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy. [1 Peter 1:13-16]
So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy. [1 Peter 1:13-16]
Do you believe that this morning, if I told you that some Christians had some misunderstandings and it's still sort of affects us this day, would that, would that be too big a surprise to you? Well, I can think of about 10 of those opportunities, but I'm going to spend the opportunity I'm going to take today to drop a bomb on just one of them. Okay? Are you ready? Grab hold of your chairs. Okay. I know this is some of your private personal stuff, but, but this one's still effects of infects us today and I'm going to read from Matthew five I know it says in your bulletin that I'm in Matthew 14 I'm not. We're in Matthew five today and I met five verse 13 this is Jesus speaking and I'm reading from the message. Let me tell you why you were here. Your here to be salt seasoning that brings out the God flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and we'll end up in the garbage. Here's another way to put it. You are here to be light, bringing out the God colors of the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this as public, as a city on a hill. If I make you light bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket. I'm putting you on top of a light stand. Now that I put you on there on a hilltop, on a light stand, shine, keep open house. The generous with your lives, the opening up to others. You'll prompt people to open up with God. This generous father in heaven, so here it is. Salt and light. Every day items something you don't even missing. You don't even figure out that they're missing until they're gone and then you miss them terribly. In Colville, what did we have yesterday? We had no power in the morning, no lights. Otherwise you just walked through the house and turn them on. Did you know that it's perfectly cape, that you're perfectly capable of eating breakfast if the lights are not on. Most of us didn't know that I ate breakfast out on the porch, enjoying this. A little sun filtered through the smoke. But here it is that salt and light are simple. They do their job without fanfare. They're common. They're normal just as we're called to be. But there was a misunderstanding in, in a, let's call these times the times between Jesus and now. Okay. But early on in that time, there came a translation of the Bible called the, uh, Jerome did it. It was the Latin vulgate and they just read the Latin vulgate for about 500 years. They didn't pay a lot of attention to the Greek. They did keep it alive, even though they lost their ability to read it. But about seven, 800 years ago, they started looking in, in the western world. That's Europe. And you know, where we, where we sort of think we come from, we don't, most of us are North Americans now. We don't think of ourselves as Europeans doing. How many of you think of yourself as a European? Okay. So anyways, so, so they started looking into coin a Greek or New Testament Greek and they started looking into it and they said, well, we're reading homer acidity, all these famous writers of the Greeks, and there's words here we don't know, but their culture told them about religion. And so their culture told them that only priests and monks and sisters, you know the, the, the specialist that only, they were really able to do the Christian thing very well. They had so much so that we do communion. Do you know that at that point in time when they started looking at the Bible that they would not have gone up for communion and gotten bread and wine? It was believed that only the priests were holy enough to take the wine. And so you'd get a little piece of bread and they drank the wine for you because you just couldn't do this thing quite[inaudible] up. And that has a preconception about the holy, about how dangerous the holy is now difficult. The Holy Path is, and, and suddenly you start feeling like maybe only superheros can do it right. Only the special on the equipped, only the call, all that. Are you ready to get, get out your superman pose? Only they do it, but that is not, that is a misconception from this, but when, but if you were raised in that culture, we're only the special could do Christianity, right? And then you come into a language that you think you know, but it had, so here's the, here's the little details here. Okay. Uh, New Testament Greek has about 5,000 words in it. When they started looking into it again, do you realize 10% of them, 10% 500 words were words that appeared nowhere in ancient Greek whatsoever. And so they're reading these words and they're going, what does this word mean? It's a new word. It's a new word. And then they're in this culture where this is a holy book language and they calling it, they start calling wholly a coin and Greek a holy ghost language.
Speaker 2:Okay?
Speaker 1:You can almost hear the voices. Everybody's voice hush when they start really goes,
Speaker 2:okay.
Speaker 1:Right? Just the way people do when they come into church and they say, this is a holy place. Now, I would tell you this and I want to correct this, and I've said this in the past and I want to say it now. This is a place where the sanctuaries of God come to meet together, and I'm going to say that really the sanctuaries of God, that that's the people that have accepted Jesus into their lives. The Holy Spirit lives in them. Where's the place that the Holy Spirit lives in the Temple of God?
Speaker 2:Okay?
Speaker 1:That would make you the temple and so little kids don't run in a temple, the temple run in a building. I need you to make sure that you hear that, and I'm not just doing that from because I liked sayings, things that will blow you out of the water or anything. I might like that too, but here's the deal. There's two words for temple throughout the New Testament. I reign us. That's the land, the grounds, every place in it and the knots. And Paul uses the Natto says the holy of holies, the place where God dwells. When he says, don't you know that your the template, it's not just, it's not the parking lot, you're not the parking lot of the temple of God. You're the holy of holies. But if you go into this thing and you start running into words that you don't know now if you're familiar with the Lord's prayer, one of them is in it, one of them. One of those words is in the Lord's prayer. Are you ready? Are Our time Epi? UCR.
Speaker 2:Okay,
Speaker 1:we translate that as a daily bread art. Tanya's bread, but EPI UC on is a word that they had never seen and it sounds pretty fun. It sounds pretty, pretty fancy, doesn't it? At the UC, I mean that's going to be high on special. So much so that origin, one of the church fathers would say that is, that's, that's gotta being super substantial brand.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And that's, that was literally his translation. Okay. So you can understand that if you have people saying that are super substantial, give us today our super substantial bread.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Pretty soon you run into transubstantiation and a whole bunch of other little alleyways and Christian faith that leads you down wrong ways and understanding and all this stuff because they didn't understand a word and they had to come up with a meaning but there, but remember that this was a holy ghost language and that they didn't know what these things meant and they were, they were handling very carefully and they showed up. Right. But I would tell you, do you know what happened along the line? Somebody about 200 years ago started running a archeological dig in Egypt and they came across our Epi UCL on a shopping list on a shopping list, right? Fresh bread. Give us today the fresh bread. Give us, I don't want day old bread. We're not sending my kid to the store. Don't buy the old crusty stuff by the new stuff. It was a daily term that in fact right now there are only about 50 of those 500 words that don't appear any place else. We found them in garbage dumps on simple everyday items all over the place. Instead, instead of this being a holy ghost language, it was the language of the common. Oh, but because it was viewed as the special language in a culture that only the special can do this work of God and then only the special can read it and only and only, and pretty soon you have a little tiny group of people reading the word of God and nobody really understanding it because there cultural misinterpretations have led them down
Speaker 3:a hole
Speaker 1:that would make Alison wonderland seem not so bad when Jesus and I did this for you a couple of weeks ago, when Jesus called his disciples, they were not the learned people in the thing. And he said, come follow me, and what did they hear? I believe you can do this.
Speaker 2:Okay,
Speaker 1:from a rabbi. And they dropped everything to be like their rabbi, the ordinary common folk of the, of the world, fishermen, carpenters,
Speaker 3:pastors,
Speaker 1:ordinary folk, and so our time at Puc on our daily bread reminds us that, that we aren't called to be the special, mythical, magical, heroic people that that follow this path and nobody else can do it. We're called to be normal every day folk following Jesus. You see how different that is that if only like 3% of us can do it, boy, that's a hard path and you've got to do it right. You got to do everything perfect and the Jesus calls us
Speaker 2:in a normal language with any calls, normal people, and he said, you can do it. You can do it.
Speaker 1:Now how can we do it? Because with God, not this is impossible, but with him everything is possible. This is the deal. You can do it not because of who you are that because something's been done for you. You can do this, not because of all your skills, but because the skills of the living breathing God and dwell you and make you capable, not for who you are, but for what he's done, right? That's the new song that's out on the radio right now. Let's think about that for a second. This is an all because of an archeological dig in a dump. We start to actually understand that the Bible was written in everyday language, that Jesus didn't speak in a different language than the people around him. He spoke in the language, everybody around him, him, him, heard, and the New Testament is written in Koine Greek. Not because it was the big fancy language, but because in their culture, everybody had to read Greek. You had to, you couldn't get along with the Romans and in the Greek culture, unless you read Greek. Now, most of them spoke multiple languages and you know yourself how hard that is unless you're raised with it, right? So they didn't go and do that. There was, it wasn't this thing that was so difficult that they read Greek because they had to win. When you're kings and governors say, this is how we're writing it and you have to read it, and ignorance of the law is no excuse. Guess what? You learn how to read it, but here it is. I'm going to read it again. It's not an a fancy codex. It's an everyday item. Remember fresh bread from a shopping list. Now let's go back and read my salt and light things so that you can know that I'm not just doing this in a strange foreign tongue like the message, sometimes scenes on accident. Let me tell you why you're here. Your here to be salt seasoning that brings out the God flavors of this. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and we'll end up in the garbage. Here's another way to put it. You're here to be light. Bringing out the colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this as public, as a city on a hill. If you make, if I make you light bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you on that. You're a bucket. Do you? I'm putting you on top of a light stand now that you're up there on a hilltop, on a light stand, keep your house open, generous with your lives. Be opening up to others. You'll prompt people to open up with God. This generous father in heaven. No, I asked, I asked art our person to be ready back here. Fruit with a video. If she can get
Speaker 4:that ready. I just, I know I sprung it on her. So
Speaker 1:you understand this terminology of I'm filling space for a second. I had this experience with this video that I showed you a couple of weeks ago. The reasons people don't go to church. Now I'm going to show you a it again and we're going to unpack it again a little bit from the Non Christian viewpoint.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay. Why do we need such a video?
Speaker 4:Okay. And so she's going to show that to you and I'm going to ask her to stop it
Speaker 1:at one spot and then we'll just talk it through. Okay. So here it is. Are you ready? Are we still going? Yeah, it's right. Yeah, I bet. I bet it's, I bet it's a muted over there.
Speaker 4:Church is filled with a bunch of hypocrites.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 4:And there's always room for one. Okay. All they care about is your money. They care about me, not about my mind. Is there some kind of dress code? Yes. The code is where? Some clothes.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 4:Church. It just makes me nervous. I was nervous at first and then I felt right at home.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I'm not sure. I believe everything that you believe, but you can still belong. Yeah, sure. Just a wimpy girly man. You want to sit down again?
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 4:If you knew me and what I've done, you wouldn't want me. If you need me and what I have done, you wouldn't be worried.
Speaker 5:Let me stop it there.
Speaker 1:So do you understand that, that nonbelievers wonder about these things, people that have never been to church wonder about whether they should, what kind of, what's the dress code? Do you know why? Because our culture tells them that churches, you've got to have your Sunday best. You know, that's a terminology everywhere. You got to wear your best clothes and all this. Let me tell you one thing. Paul talks about dressing fancy at church once he said, don't do it. Said if by your finery you make others feel less able than you're making a mistake. Okay, about this. If you knew me and what I've done, you wouldn't want me. Do you believe that people that have never been to church, if felt judged in the world by whom should? Should we worry about whether or not people believe exactly the same things as, as each of us? Let me tell you that this way, I've spoken to several of you. Your brains work really good. I guarantee you that you don't think the way I think because some things, something in me is slightly broken and off. I don't work exactly right. Those of you who spoke to me know that I think in a different path. Should I then make all of you tried to believe the way I do? No, you don't. Why? Because God has spoken to me in a way that matters to me and he's spoken to you in a way that matters to you and he's reached each of us and don't you think he can keep doing it or 45 or 50 ways? All he can handle. There's billions of people. There's a song out right now that says God has millions and millions of dollars, billions and billions of doors for his love to pass through your one of them custom specific, born for a special way, born for a task. There's another thing nonbelievers don't do. Okay, are you ready for this? They don't say, well, that person over there that just did that thing to me, you know, cut me off in traffic or something like that. They only go to church every so often. That's not really what Christians believe. Do you know what they do? Christians believe it's okay to cut people off in traffic because the little fish on the back of the car, I'm not against putting a little fish on the back of your car when I'm here to tell you is is that you are a city on a hill period. It is not a designation about whether or not you do it well. Your visible, your a Christian, God put you there and he didn't hide you with a bucket. Sometimes we'd like to crawl under a bucket, but that's not what he did. You were a city on a hill and nonbelievers. People that don't know Christ don't think for a moment. They don't draw lines and saying, well that person only goes to church on Christmas and Easter and this person over here is the pastor of a church. So we should believe the pastor of the church because they're there all the time. They say, Christian Christians believe this and so let me ask you this question. This is a really important question. You've been asked that several times in your life. Are you ready? You don't look right. Are you ready? Oh, when does ready, are you ready? Here we go. What's more believable? What you say or what you do? Unless what? Unless they match. Then all the bells and whistles go off, don't they? When you meet somebody who, who does what they say and says what they do, you would say what? That they have integrity or they're sincere. I sorta love language and things like that. I know it doesn't seem like I love it so much and, and I haven't loved it enough to learn how to punctuate in it. But I love to speak in languages, so that's pretty[inaudible].
Speaker 4:Cool.
Speaker 1:But sincere. Do you know what sincere actually comes from?
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 1:It's a pottery term, meaning holds water. It's a pot that hasn't been cracked and mended so that you can't tell. So when you go and buy a sincere pot, it holds water. But if you buy one that doesn't hold water, it's not as sincere pot. It's not a good pot. And so we pull these things in from other languages and they start to mean sort of thing. So what you do in Christ when you show actual love and care and then your words match, you're a witness to Christ. If I'd be lifted up, I will draw everyone unto myself, becomes a sincere witnessed to Christ. Just a personal note, I talked with my daughter about this, that she knows I'm sharing it, okay? I'm not just sharing this out. Um, she's talking with a young man and she's talked with several people about their faith and he, I called there and he goes, well, you're a pastor. I've got questions. And he started talking to me. And so this is a young man, I don't know very well. We spend an hour on the phone answering his questions and Mark Maricka, my daughter says, sometimes I feel like I didn't do it right. If everybody I talked to ends up with you, and my response is entirely different than that. Okay? Are you ready? They trusted her enough to ask me a question. How many of you would walk into a pastor's office that you didn't know and just start asking questions about faith and something you didn't understand? Now you might come in and ask questions about things you think you understand.
Speaker 3:Okay,
Speaker 1:but what about it? If you were sincerely confused and wanted an answer and didn't know who to trust and then you ran into a pastor, would you stop them in the grocery store and have an hour long conversation? Some of you would never have an hour long conversation in a grocery store. No, I get that. I would, but that's because
Speaker 3:I'm outgoing slightly.
Speaker 1:But this is this line in this task. The Peterson brings out the opening up to others. You'll prompt people to open up with God. I find my daughter utterly trustworthy in the eyes of her friends because they come and they ask the weird adult person, you understand the definition of weird adult and cool to do a 20 year old, right? Over 24 once you're over 24 you're not cool. You're weird and all these things. So if they start asking you questions, it's because they've trusted the witness of somebody else's
Speaker 3:to trust you. They've went trough.
Speaker 1:Now, may you be trustworthy enough that they would Lynn trust
Speaker 3:the God who they don't know.
Speaker 1:Can we start being the change that we're talking about? Can we be the Christianity that people need that we talk about when we speak grace? Can we live lives of grace?
Speaker 3:Can we be everyday believers
Speaker 1:without a mystical, mythical, heroic path that only a few can walk because God's made them special? God's made you special. And the announcements this morning, there was a chance to hand out water bottles
Speaker 3:at the fair booth.
Speaker 1:How many of you have done something more different
Speaker 3:that in your life,
Speaker 1:I have a couple of people. You've done something more difficult than handing out a water bottle at a fair booth. Congratulations. You're now qualified. You can do it right. So, but here's the deal. How many of you have trusted Jesus with your life?
Speaker 3:You can do it.
Speaker 1:And I know that sometimes it's hard to believe that humans can do this thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah,
Speaker 1:but maybe it's not necessarily just our faith in Christ that makes it stable. Maybe Christ faith in us.
Speaker 3:Can Melinda a little help to the process you need to change. We're talking about you be our time daily bread, French bread, day old bread. We don't want the crusty stuff. We just want bread, bread from heaven. And so this is what we do. We live our lives not as specialist, but as people walking a path together, you'd join me in prayer. Lord Jesus, I thank you for today. I thank you for your love, the way you take care of us, the way you bring us into your life, and then let us wall. Help us know that we are God's workmanship. That where your fathers, he is well pleased, created us. He created us for good works that we might walk. Thank you Lord. Amen. Now, before we.