So two questions; how do we build trust and where do we find what trust is?

In Matthew 5, Jesus says let your “Yes be Yes” and your “No be No”. That is: be trustworthy. Plain and simple, be the YES. Jesus says we shouldn’t swear on things or make extravagant claims. Just be reliable, consistent. This is how you build trust. He goes on to say that anything that does not point to YES comes from and results in evil. WOW. Seems like cosmic overkill, but in reality it makes good sense. Distrust creates some of the deepest emotional and spiritual pains human beings can experience.

So how do we know what to trust? Or, how do we know what is trustworthy in a world that says that truth is relativistic? Where do we turn to know trust so that we can know what to say “Yes” and “No” to? Proverbs 3 makes it clear for us. We must trust God, not lean on our own understanding (or way of thinking), but rather trust God with all our heart (our whole being), which will result in straight paths (that is, the right way to live). The proverb goes on to say if we are not wise in our own eyes (i.e. we don’t presume to make up truth for ourselves), then we will find healing and refreshment (in our flesh and bones to use the body metaphor).

So to be trustworthy is to be consistent in the Yes and No’s of life. God steps in and says don’t trust yourself, trust Me, then you will know how to have unplugged relationships.

Thoughts?

When we have fulfilling and functional relationships, our hearts and souls are overflowing with life. But relationships that are dysfunctional can wound the heart and blight the soul.

How do we pursue and develop relationships that build up, bring life and nourish the soul? This is what the “wii” series is all about. Looking at four principles from the life of Jesus and the bible that, if understood and practiced, will help us have fulfilling relationships.

This week we looked at conflict resolution. Relationships, by definition, demand change and growth, which comes most often in the form of conflict. Conflict can be a very good thing when handled correctly, but when handled poorly, or worse, ignored, it is very destructive.

A few passages we looked at: Matthew 5:21-26, Matthew 18:15-20, Ephesians 4:31-32. These passages make handling conflict clearer. If you have something against someone or if you know someone has something against you, deal with it right away and one on one. Most conflict is based on misunderstanding and misperception, so we need to approach such conversations with humility. If, after going one on one, the conflict is unresolved, then take another person with you, not to back you up, but to help hear both sides and make a wise judgement and to see that the conflict is resolved with forgiveness (see Matthew 18:21-35).

The principle we must apply to our relationships is this, “Keep Short Accounts.” Deal with conflict, donʼt let it build up. When you do there are two results, bitterness and guilt, both of which destroy relationships. If you and I keep short accounts with Jesus, with personal relationships, within the resurgent or church community, and with the world, what will be the results?

So what are the weapons of Jesus’ advent conspiracy? I would submit that there are a number of weapons. The gospel, or good news, is the ultimate weapon, the nuclear bomb of all bombs. You also have the weapons of prayer, justice, righteousness, giving and many, many others. So I want us to focus on three that I believe are especially counter-cultural here in the U.S.

In 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, the apostle Paul illustrates one of these weapons. The context is a special monetary gift that Paul is collecting for the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem who were extremely poor. Various churches, including the Corinthian church, had pledged to give money to this cause. However the Corinthians were having second thoughts about giving what they pledged. So Paul told them about the church in Macedonia who had followed through on their commitment.

Now the Macedonian church was by no means flush with cash. Paul says that they were, in fact, in “severe affliction” and were experiencing “extreme poverty.” Yet they literally “begged” to be allowed to participate in the money collection. Paul goes on to say hat they gave “beyond their means”, or more than they could afford to give without increased poverty. This is counter-cultural! I mean, who begs to give more than they can afford to a group of people they had probably not met. Amazing! This is the conspiracy at work through conspirators.

So what was the weapon that allowed and motivated them to act upon the advent conspiracy? Paul says it was joy, abundant joy. Now joy is interesting because it is not based on mere happiness or fleeting security or emotional well being. If this were the case, it wouldn’t be much of a weapon, certainly not one that would have motivated the Macedonians to do what they did. No, joy has more substance than that. In point of fact,  joy is pleasure, pure pleasure that doesn’t depend on anything. Weird right? Hold on though, if joy transcends “happiness” then it makes sense that it would have to be incredible and that it should be sought. As followers of Jesus we are hesitant to seek pleasure for pleasure’s sake. However if joy is a pure and transcendent pleasure, then seeking it would lead us to the only true source. For the Macedonians, and for us, this is God, there is no other source. So, seeking joy leads us to God so that we might enjoy Him, seeking true pleasure is, in fact, seeking God.

John Piper, a pastor and theologian says this of joy, “The pursuit of pleasure is an essential motive for every good deed. If you aim to abandon the full and lasting pleasure, you cannot love people or love god.” Wow, without joy and the subsequent seeking of pleasure, we will not move into true care for people and enjoyment of God. Piper also says, “love is the overflow and expansion of joy in god, which gladly meets the needs of others.” Finding true pleasure, i.e. God, results in meeting the needs of others. You can see that joy is a potent weapon of the conspiracy.

What does joy do. For one thing, joy conspires against mediocrity. Once you have found joy you are compelled to do more than what is usual or expected. Now you can go above and beyond, you can rise above. Joy also conspires against minimalism. With joy you cannot do something “half ass” (sorry if this offends you but it is a poignant metaphor). Joy helps create above and beyond behavior coupled with above and beyond giving. Talk about a potent weapon of the advent conspiracy.

How are you seeking joy? And how is joy conspiring within and through you?

In Isaiah chapter nine we read an ancient prophecy declaring the eventual arrival of Jesus on the earth as a child. Now it is easy for us to lose sight of the plan that Jesus was setting in motion, to see Him as a an innocent baby who could never overthrow anything. This makes Jesus safe. As a baby He does not make demands of us. So Christmas is a pleasant time of wise men, trees, lights and presents. However, Isaiah nine paints a different picture. Some of the terms used to describe who Jesus is and what He will do are: government unending, trampling warrior, battle, even garments rolled in blood. This sounds more like a war than a stable and swaddling cloths. Isaiah reminds us that Jesus has very specific plans to change the status quo. He has planned and will execute a conspiracy. Jesus. Meek? Mild? As if!

The definition I am using is for conspiracy is this; a conspiracy may also refer to a group of people who make an agreement to form a partnership in which each member becomes the agent or partner of every other member and engage in planning or agreeing to commit some act. So then Jesus is the architect of this conspiracy but we are his co-conspirators, working in partnership with Jesus and with each other. This begs a question, what part do we play as conspirators? After all, you cannot say you belong to the resistance and not resist, this would be antithetical.

Ok, if the advent is counter-cultural then Christmas, our cultural representation of the advent, should be counter-cultural as well. We, as conspirators, should conspire to make Christmas counter-cultural. One of the ways we, the resurgent community, are conspiring is by taking some of the money we might have used to buy presents and, instead, giving it to help a village in Africa receive clean water. This is one way among many that we can conspire, changing the way Christmas is, to the way it should be.

So how are you conspiring?

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 provides further clarification. Here Paul says that where the Spirit  is there is freedom. That those with “unveiled faces”, that is those who have been set free from the old way of relating to God (i.e. the law) and are now relating to God via grace, are being transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus via the Spirit’s power and work. So these “living waters” are freedom from the law and the transformation of our lives more and more into the likeness of Jesus. Awesome right? This reality should result in incredible celebration and rejoicing. However, we often miss this because we have failed to grasp or apply one of the greatest truths about this freedom, that we are the living dead.

Romans 6:5-7 and 11 says this, “ 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin…11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God!  Dead, not dying, dead.  The Spirit creates freedom, freedom from slavery to sin, the freedom of life in Christ.

So what would it look like, feel like and sound like to be a people who have living waters, that is, the freedom and transformation of the living dead (alive in Jesus, dead to sin)? Can you imagine gathering together as a people who are embracing, learning and living the reality of living waters in their lives? That would be an amazing Soundtrack, a Soundtrack worth inviting people to share. That music would be irresistible.

Sunday I asked two questions: 1) would you wish your relationship with Jesus on someone else, and 2) would you wish our Sunday gathering on someone? What do I mean? The soundtrack of the living dead is infectious, people will be blessed by hearing and experiencing both an individual and corporate life of living waters. So we need to live free and drink deep.

Reality is, sinners  are just people like me and you who make mistakes and have failings. Perhaps we don’t take religion seriously, but do consider ourselves spiritual. Again the religious elite look down upon people like us. In their minds prophets (a.k.a. “religious” people…they considered Jesus one) should not spend time with such people and most certainly didn’t eat with them. So they grumbled about Jesus’ actions which prompted His three parable response.

The bottom line point of the parables is this, when something of great value is lost we search for it and then celebrate when we find it. Jesus was saying that He was focused on finding those who were relationally lost (separated from Him) and when found them He celebrated with them that He found them, that they were found. He had a party, shared a meal, did life with them. So the soundtrack of Jesus’ life was punctuated by the sounds of parties thrown in celebration of His finding something of great worth, namely you and me.

So then the soundtrack of our lives should be punctuated by the sounds of celebration as Jesus rejoices over finding us, sounds of praise from me and you  for being found, and the sounds of our celebration with Jesus that people, hopefully in our spheres of influence, are currently being found relationally, celebrating them as they come to know Jesus as savior.

So, when we gather together in community to celebrate Jesus, two of the songs we sing over and over, some of our favorites that are on repeat, on the playlist for the night, are “Invest” and “Invite”. Jesus does life with us, He invests in relationship with us, and then invites us to the party. In the same way He wants us to invest in those that are relationally apart from Jesus and then invite them to the party. You see… Jesus is the composer, we are His opus and instruments that He uses to play the soundtrack of life.

So who are you, in your spheres of influence (school, family, work, those you hang out with), are you investing in? Who are you inviting to the party? Are you experiencing a life punctuated by the soundtrack of celebration?

STUFF can hinder us. I defined STUFF in 4 ways: as a noun; 1. property, as personal belongings or equipment; things, 2. inward character, qualities, or capabilities, 3. action or talk of a particular kind, and as a verb, 1. to fill (a receptacle), esp. by packing the contents closely together; cram full. So you see STUFF can mean a lot of different things; physical objects, talents, particular actions, and to cram “stuff” into some type of receptacle (which by the way can include ourselves at an emotional, intellectual and spiritual level).

In Luke 9:57-62 Jesus encounters three people. Two ask to follow Jesus and Jesus asks one of them to follow Him. So in asking and in being asked these people are essentially saying, “I want to run the race.” However in each instance the people ask to do some sort of task before following Jesus. The tasks or questions seem fairly legit, but in each instance Jesus gives very personal and even strange answers. This leads me to believe two things; one – that Jesus knew these people, two – that what Jesus was asking them to do, or not to do, related to them being able to walk with Him, i.e. something they needed to Purge from their lives. Each of these things are STUFF; a home perhaps, perceived family obligations, an occupation, etc. These individuals needed to let go of STUFF so they could walk with Jesus.

Jesus did not say that any of these things were bad. He was not interested in creating rules. What He was concerned about was whether or not STUFF was hindering them (and us) from running the race. Jesus was concerned about what OWNED them. This is something that STUFF can do to us, it can OWN our lives. Whether it is debt, literal physical stuff, an unfulfilled dream, or even some hurt from the past, these things can take control, this STUFF can OWN our lives therefore hindering or weighing us down during the race.

So here is the question, “Who or What OWNS you?” The reality, if you are a Jesus follower, is that you are bought and paid for, JESUS OWNS YOU! So what things are you discovering that “own” you and how are you experiencing the OWNERSHIP of Jesus?

So what is our BE? The three aspects of Jesus joy that we have been talking about. This was the prize that Jesus ran for, lived for, endured for. So then our being should be that of expressing and experiencing that joy (see week one). So what keeps us from it? What hinders us from “being” within the time we have purged in our lives so that the outcome is right actions?

Jesus experienced many situations where He was tempted to become entangled and weighed down, hindered from running the race well, to stop being what He was supposed to be. Now, as the perfecter of our “faith race” and as the God/man, He never gave into these temptations. Nonetheless they were real and we should learn from His example so that we will know what to Purge from our SELF.

Luke 4:1-12 (read it again) describes one such time where Jesus was tempted to leave the course of the race (that He authored, by the way) and try a simpler route which would have ultimately hindered, entangled and weighed Him down. He would have stopped “being”. I see three sins that entangle in this passage (though there are many others) that if we will Purge them from our lives we will be better runners and as such better givers and receivers of the joy prize. Self sufficiency, pride and faithlessness are sins that so easily entangle and thwart our experience and expression of the awesome prize before us. We must Purge these from our lives!

So which of these are you finding you need to purge from your life? For me I must continue to wrestle with self sufficiency (which essentially says that I don’t need God). This is of course related to pride. I want to look good by doing things myself. If I am honest this is not pretty and ultimately keeps me from intimacy with God. Every day, sometimes many times during the day, I must ask the question, “is this God working or is it me trying to do the work by myself?” So what do you think?

Our two greatest commodities are ourselves and our time. The two are impossible to separate. We produce desired outcomes via ourselves (thoughts, energy, emotion, etc.) in the context of time. In fact we need to use our time better and take care of ourselves so that we can continue to be productive. So this raises two questions: How do/should we spend our time? and What do we need to Purge so that we can spend our time as we should?

Jesus says that He is the author and finisher of this life race, that He is the subject matter expert. So if we are going to answer the previous questions correctly, we must look at how Jesus spent His time and what He tells us about how to spend our time.

After reading and thinking a lot, and looking at some key verses,  I came to the conclusion that Jesus is much more concerned that we are being in the moment than what we are doing. Here is the principle, “right being” creates “right doing”. If we need our time to be Purged. then the place to start is not with what we are doing, rather we need to look at our time and ask the question “when am I being?”

Now the matrix of analysis we have talked about are the three “joys” (see last week’s blog) that were the motivation for Jesus to run this life race and that should likewise be ours. So we need to have time to make these joys a part of our selves.

So here is the question? What are you going to Purge from your time so that you can “be”?

PURGE – Sunday the 11th we kicked off a new series looking at the business, fullness and preoccupation of our lives. How often do you hear someone say, or perhaps you say it yourself, that there isn’t enough time, or we have too many things to do, or that life just seems like running around. Well my friends, I would like to say that this is not what life is supposed to be like. Our lives are meant to have meaning and purpose, to be fulfilling.

Speaking of fulfilling however, our lives are so full of “good things” that we miss out on the “best things.” Hebrews 12:1-2 says (paraphrase) that there are things in life, or stuff, that weigh us down, consume our focus and energy, and may actually lead us away from the life we desire. Hebrews also says that we need to get rid of these things so that we can run the race of life, in other words we need to Purge so we can have the life we desire and are intended to live.

Like any race it takes training and endurance. There will always be struggles and so the prize had better be worth it. The prize in this case is joy (which means merriment, even intoxication with happiness and satisfaction), i.e. the life we want instead of the rat race. Now Jesus, who is the subject matter expert and supreme example of running this race, saw this prize of joy so worth running after that He endured and despised (didn’t care about) the shame of being crucified naked on a wooden cross. That’s a high price to pay, so Jesus, who knows everything, saw the value of this prize to be well worth it.

On Sunday I described this Jesus joy in three ways: 1. A joy in finding and then giving true inward and internal change to our hearts and minds so that we can live in joy; 2. A joy found in making it possible to have intimacy with God; 3. A joy making it possible for God to forgive and forget the wrongs (what the Bible calls sin) we have committed against God, others and ourselves. God says that you can have a similar joy, or purpose in: 1. helping people (including yourself) to change and become the type of person they were meant to be; 2. by finding intimacy with God; 3. helping people (you and me) to know the forgiveness of God. Awesome, right? That is a life worth running for, to endure for. It is a life worth the work of purging our current life so that we might attain the prize, this Jesus life, this joy.

So I summarized this week’s message by saying that in order to see this happen we must “FIX OUR EYES – KNOW THE PRIZE“. By this I mean if we are going to run unencumbered by “stuff” then we need to fix our eyes on Jesus, our example and coach on living free of stuff and then we need to know what we are running for, what the prize is, so that we will be motivated to endure.

So here is my question – when you think of a life of joy as I have described it what does it look like? Can you see it? What is it’s substance? So share your thoughts.