Did God really say you can't do this, or you can't do that? This kind of thought gets in our minds and then we nurture the thought. We cultivate the thought and so begins the process of eventually firing God and replacing him with me, ourselves, and off the rails we go to live happily ever after, or maybe not. So let me just bring this down to us again. I want to keep warning us to not let this stir up in us anger with finger pointed to some group out there, that is absolutely fruitless, if not outright uncchristian.The thing for us to do is draw this onto ourselves.
So let me show you what I mean. I am at the center of futile thinking. At the center of futile thinking, in other words, is the me and everything the me wants. I want to do what I want to do. I know best. I think this is good. I think that is right. I want to do whatever I feel like doing. What's true for me is true for me, even if it's not actually true. If I think it's true or want it to be true or think it should be true, then it is true enough for me even if it is not objectively or actually true according to reality as established by God. And if all of this is starting to sound just a tad bit absurd, then I am communicating very clearly because it is.
The politics of the world matters; right, left, Democrat, Republican, conservative, progressive. But the church is a community of those whose first identity is who they are in the Trinity and to the Trinity. So, our first passion and first agenda and first focus is not right, left, progressive, conservative, Democrat, Republican. It is kingdom. It is the way of Jesus. Ephesians 4 and verse 15, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
Immaturity is one of the glaring problems facing the church in our country right now. Immaturity. Christian immaturity. Christians acting immature. There are far too many who claim to be Christian, standing in their highchairs with nothing on but a diaper, demanding dessert right here and right now. Christians who have not and are not, allowing the gospel to penetrate their pathologies and transform them into a new person who increasingly thinks, feels, acts, reacts, chooses, and responds the way Jesus would if he were in their shoes and in their situation.
You see, whether we realize it or not, we are all living a story. I know some of you in your mind, are in your head just saying, "No, I'm not. I live in the real world.” But you see the real world is a story. The real the real world is a series of connected events and actions by significant characters that are leading to a particular end. You are living a story. The question is, which story are you living?
Is it a fantasy? One that you made up in your head? One that requires you to ignore truth and be blind to the realities around you? Or is it the story that makes sense of reality as it is? Is it the story of God?
Jesus comes though not to abolish the tedium of God's laws, but to actually live them out, to show us what a life lived by God's system under God's government looks like. And not only that, he teaches us the details of how with God's ongoing help, we can live that way.
If I were to give you two words for the role of the prophets, they would be, WAKE UP! Remember, they were a people who were to represent the way of God, the alternative to the systems and cultures of the world, but they like us, continue to believe that their ways were somehow better than God's ways. And as we see not just in the Bible, but in both the world without and our worlds within, the way we live comes with consequences.
Maybe the choices that you've made have screwed up your life. Maybe they've screwed up the lives of others. But regardless of which mistakes that you are carrying today or maybe even running from today, the mistakes that we're trying to ignore, the the mistakes that we're trying to avoid, the good news of the story of the kings of Israel is that no matter how bad the mistake, no matter how poor the decision, no matter how far you or I fall. God does not give up on you. He does not give up on his plans for you. He does not give up on his plans of bringing good into your life. If we would just turn, if we would just change our mind, if we would repent from our rebellion against him and allow him to be the actual king of our life.
The story continues to unfold today as it has for thousands of years. God is creating a community that identifies as God's people and they and he interact, relate, and work together toward the fulfillment of his purposes; land, people, God, place, heaven, earth, co-mingling, interacting, intersecting, roots being set down, and all of this adding up to this demonstration to the world. This is who God is, and this is what life can be like under him. See, this is what church means, what I'm describing. This is what church is. And this is why church matters.
Our service on Sunday was a deep breath from the day-to-day crazy of our lives. Pastor Mike encouraged us to sit in this idea that God's invitation to you to follow him, to trust him, to live in his ways, is immense. It covers quite literally everything.”
“The one who loves fulfills the law.” - Romans 13:18
In Exodus 14:13, Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance that the Lord will bring you today. These Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. You need only to be still.”