Be The Salt Pt.3 | Shawn Bolz | Expression 58

so this is salt part 3 and I'm excited about thank you so much I'm excited about it because I've just been brewing over some themes in the body of Christ that are current and now what God wants to do in the nail and you know other generations were wrestling with things like even Martin Luther boo this is the 500 year anniversary of Protestantism and he was wrestling with the main issue was over marriage like could priests get married and he started to interpret the Bible into a common tongue and those those were huge issues in his day and then you know in the last thirty years some of the huge issues were Arminianism versus Calvinism which we don't know that's probably not even something you think about you know but it was a huge deal in the 60s it was a huge deal in the 70s certain countries it's still a huge deal you know the the theology of your eschatology if you don't have certain eschatology you don't fit into certain church movements and that a lot of people believed around the turn of the century in the 1900s that your eschatology is your divine motivator for how you pursue God on this earth and there's a part of that so true but I mean it became like a black and white like you're either in this camp or not well we're kind of at one of those times again a big discussions happening right now and there's people who are you know talking about it who are being judged for hyper grace there's people who are talking about it who are you know trying to draw the line so clear that there's no gray area at all for anybody and the issue would be over the goodness of God an issue would be over God's holiness and his glory filling the horse and when Jesus came to the earth he did something really interesting which is he preached for three years to people who weren't believers as though they were treated them like they were and treated prostitutes like they were leaders tax collectors like they were worthy to be in his army you know he treated people with so much value and he did it because he could see the father's original intention over them and he knew he was being invited into the heavenly scenario of restoring us to where we delineate it from the Father's heart and so he had around him people that he valued and he treated as though they were fully worthy even though they weren't technically and he was the first one in history who modeled this kind of leadership there's no one else in history besides David King David who was in a cave and treated these men who were hiding with him as though they were champions and they were but he treated them like that before they were qualified they were criminals they were war criminals who were all kinds of criminals and they treated them like you could be my generals you could be the ones who are leading my army he was the only other one but he was in his own mind also an outcast Jesus came to the world to restore God's dream and he came to the world as a very empowered person whose identity and he was not only empowered as identity but he Foley was convinced of who he was he didn't have he didn't have any you know shadow inside him it was like maybe I'm not this or he didn't have the struggle maybe that David did and so when he was treating people with that value it's a hundred percent real value and yet they all denied him it says in the Bible until after the resurrection so after the resurrection he comes back and then of course the entitlement could be given but he modeled something in that in the Gospels that was so beautiful and what we're coming into is the Battle of the us-and-them there's been this battle in the church that keeps us from being the salt of the world which is we actually have an elitism or even unintentional arrogance that happens where we think us with salvation equals so much greatness that everybody who's not saved isn't truly great until they get saved which means there's no goodness like a Parenthood as a baby it's good but it's not as good as a spiritual parent a Christian parent who has a baby it's not the same quality of love and yet let me define something to you Galatians 5 verse 22 and through 24 I'm skimary to around 23 and the message Bible says we develop a willingness to stick with things a sense of compassion in the heart and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people this is huge because the more you grow in God the more you realize of course there's original sin just have a baby you'll see original sin right away I mean Hartley this morning was like an original sin she's totally rebelling I don't want to get dressed I'm mad at the world you know I just want to do what I want to do but at the same time there's original goodness we were made in the image of God and Jesus didn't look at the original sin and he didn't and he didn't constantly warn of how he talked about Hell very realistically but it wasn't the main subject he focused on he focused on heaven the kingdom the father he focused on the Holy Spirit's work he focused on restoring he came to store all things he came as the reconciler of man and so he focused on these things and there's been an inordinate affection to focus on what God's not doing and what hell looks like throughout history and God is like literally released a son as an example to us which is he looked at people who were unbelieving as though they fully believed he treated them as they though they can have the same access he did to the father what a model in other words he saw God's original intention and image and he said all I'll agree with you and I'll cooperate with you God and I'll treat them because there's something that's hardwired in humanity to relate and be known by God so he treated that the prostitute mother as if she you know what loved her child just as much as somebody who's fully saved because at that point nobody really had the full salvation story they didn't understand the full thing he treated everybody with the same kind of value in other words so we have John 3:17 we preach this out of this a lot in this church especially the message version God didn't go into all the trouble sending a son merely to point an accusing finger telling the world how bad it was he came to help to put the world right again and this word for riding in a Sousa means full restoration from what was delineating so everything the father originally dreamed up everything he thought of for the billions of billions and trillions of eternities before we were ever even born and conceived everything he thought of Jesus and had a plan in his heart and was trying to fellowship over each person with that plan from the Father's heart he wasn't thinking this person might go to hell or this person isn't worthy because they don't believe in Jesus he was thinking I see the father's dream and he treated people as though they were worse that dream he treated people as though they could still fulfill that dream even if they were way off course Christianity is the only organization that you can rebuild your life after having a terrible life and you could do it relatively quickly I mean I met a pastor not too long ago and he was only saved for three years out of a drug-dealing lifestyle and now he's pastoring a whole spanic community and I like looking and going I don't know if I totally trust that but that's amazing Jesus's dignity was taken at the cross so he can restore our dignity and one of the things that we're supposed to be doing as Christians to be the salt of the earth is to treat the world with a dignity it deserves that it was originally made in His image that he created it to look like him and look like something that was out of his heart and though we can see what he's not doing and what has fallen we're supposed to see what he is doing and what can be restored which is everything and when we treat the world that way then all of a sudden we have a different conversation we come into a scenario where we're not always the experts we're not always the one who knows everything the church comes across as obviously the biggest know-it-all of of all of people groups you know like we're we know and I remember going to a city leaders meeting in 2011 or 12 it was a disaster relief meeting and I was there like at the last minute I was one of my pastor friends who was invited and they had up on the wall like it was a huge wall like this and it was their map it was like this beautiful printout map of different agencies that would help in different ways during a disaster relief plan and they were doing it it was the end of a two-day seminar and so they had drawn all this and the church was really small on that map here in Los Angeles and I was surprised it was there and it was a present but it was very small compared to some of the other organizations and I thought we had like four thousand plus churches in our city why are we so small and so I was just like listening and trying to learn like what was going on because I know in disasters like in Houston and in the Hurricanes that were just happening and it's the fires up north on all these places like we are the first responders the church gets praised all the time for being first responders but we're terrible planners we're like terrible planners like we'll show up and sometimes we do more than FEMA here in America but we don't necessarily a plan to do more than P when we don't even think about you know disaster I don't know if I asked you know this this church how many of you has like LA's asked us to store up three weeks worth of food per person for up to seven people per household at least you know how many of us have that and that's what our local governments asking us to have is you know that's that's a lot of food and a lot of us are going to have storage space for it because it's the place I live in because I live in LA but there's you know there we don't have our normal disaster fulfillment that their Afghan as a city and yet somehow we show up but the city wasn't planning us to show up and I looked at a night and it made me sad because I thought I want to be salt to my city so I'm gonna feel like to the city what heaven feels like to me and heaven feels like it has a plan heaven feels like it's planned me in you know heaven feels like like God feels like I'm part of his eternal like when he dreamed of all human beings I was one of those plans that's how I feel and I like the plan he had and the more I've gotten to know him and myself the more I thrive and the more I feel full you know one of these videos Christians is that we look at people who say things like I'm a good person and they legitimately mean it and we judge them for that as Christians we actually go into a lead as I'm like you're not really that good and instead of that we should change the conversation and actually say you are good we should be looking for what people are identifying as goodness and say yes there's goodness inside of you or I'm spiritual I feel so spiritual we should be praising people on the spiritual journey and saying yes I think of Selena Gomez who just last couple weeks was that the Hillsong conference in Australia or somewhere maybe was here in LA and she shared did you guys see this video clip and she's if you haven't seen it go watch it online she shares over the last so many years of to herself as like a younger girl who had a lack of identity who didn't really know who God was and she shared all the things that she had to was going to have to go through to get to know who God was and it was one of the most beautiful stories of identity where it's so poetic and creative but it showed ft she couldn't fake it she couldn't fake the fact that she now knows God and that she's on a deeper journey like she truly is after her kidney surgery something happened you know she got awake in a different way and I was watching her but one thing she was saying is you won't know like this five years ago still you know you won't know that those prayers once tonight weren't a real connection to the Heavenly Father who wanted to give you his fullness you won't know that like you don't know that yet and I just I was listening to her talk to her before self who wasn't it wasn't saved and I was listening to her like trying to give her advice and I kind of go back in history we got a history little bit give her advice and I just thought how many times has God tried to interact with us before we were saying how many of you actually heard God or your life was spared before you were saved by God you now know so God is already in a conversation from the time you're in your mother's womb he's in a pursuit in a conversation with you because he designed you for something and he designed you to be with him in a certain way that you would meet his heart and his expectations and he can't wait to give you himself your whole life and then all of a sudden at some point somebody gets to come in and be part of the harvesting story or discipleship story in your life but God's already been there trying to get through to you and so a lot of times Christians we show up we think we are at the beginning in the end when we're actually part of a conversation that started thousands of years ago in humanity but it started eternity going God's heart because God loves us with an everlasting love so we should be coming into scenarios like I was listening to Selena talk to herself and I was like going oh my gosh we should be in that kind of scenario where we know that God's trying to talk to people and that he's even communicated like she was sharing the places where God had met her and where he'd come alive in her but she hadn't fully given her life to God yet she hadn't surrendered she thought she did though and she was sharing it about herself and I thought what if we could discern where people truly were at in their god-given relationship with Jesus and actually treat them with the value of that show up in a time where you expect them to hear God and know God and connect to God I mean that's how Jesus treated everybody like you I mean everyone who knows God hears my voice cuz I'm The Good Shepherd and so if you want to know God you got it you got to hear his voice you know don't you hear his voice I hear his voice don't you you know I hear his voice the disciples thought they were apostles before they were even saved maybe they were I don't know if they were saved but they wasn't like the clock they couldn't say I invite you into my heart Jesus and I accept you on the cross because he hadn't gone there yet so our current status of what salvation was didn't apply to them and I think of you know like I went out - some of you have heard this story but I went to Honolulu one year to do a school and I thought this is it was a transformative thing that happened to me it's it's changed my life this one encounter because they they parked me up in that district beautiful condo but you had to walk through wet red light district to get to a subway it was the only thing open was open at like 11 o'clock at night and they were Asian and the guy who dropped me off didn't speak English so I just kept trying to tell him I'm hungry but he thought he just need to go faster to the place or something because he ignored me and drove crazy and so every night I was going out after the sessions at like 10 11 o'clock at night to go to the subway and I had to find appointments with different prostitutes on the way every night well the second night was really cool because there was a guy who asked me if I wanted some weed and I was like no I don't want thanks so much no and and there he goes well do you want a girl and there was a little girl his 16 year old girl and her two friends were sitting over two guy friends we're sitting over here I got really impacted by the fact that when I saw her it was like my my meter will not be like no you this is not gonna happen so I went over to her and I asked something and I didn't plan this it's not my mo it's not my evangelistic technique but I said hey I'm a Christian and I believe God has a plan for all of our lives he has a plan for you that like something that you would do that would help you to thrive to really get to know him do you know what that isn't she's like no I said well let's pray you borrow my faith you're gonna hear from God right now I'm like okay close your eyes and this is a street kid he was like okay kind of close your eyes but nervous I think okay ask him this just repeat after me God the one who loved me the one who thought of me for millions of years before I was ever born what is your dream for me what would what is something I can do and I'm like this huge elaborate prayer and she's like I think of what is something that I can do that would bring my heart alive she's a girl and she hears and if friends like what what what she goes I'm supposed to be a cook and I'm like a chef like a culinary like you're gonna cook like I don't I don't know like do you like to cook she's like I don't know and I'm like this is awesome I was shocked as a Christian I'm like wait did she pray The Salvation prayer can she hear from God you know that kind of mentality of like like pretending it all started with my version of Christianity right now that we practiced in these four walls so I'm like no God is far beyond us now it still works in the parameters of the Bible I'm not saying that but I'm just saying like he's running after humanity trying to communicate his love to us so I said okay this is awesome let's ask him again what's a step I could take this week towards this he'll give you a step because you to do it now so we close our eyes and I go you know God show me your stuff I can take George Ducas ha ha and she's all excited you know what she goes oh my gosh my uncle he owns a diner and him and his wife I haven't seen them in years like we've we've been estranged for there was I think I think if I called him he would let me work for him at least like this is awesome here's my phone number you got a text me or call me she goes I promise so she promise you got the street that night and so does the boys the one guy next to his 17 year old music I want to dream I want to dream you know like still we did it with him it was supercooled and that third kid was like nervous but still what at prayer but didn't want God to talk to him cuz it spooked him out but uh you know I get a text from her like that a couple days later it's just call me call me so she goes my uncle who I've been estranged from is actually my mom's brother and my mom left her family because she was felt religious oppression or whatever technically that's not what she said but and so she laughed and so my her mom was a drug addict and she cuz when I ran away from home I thought about contacting my uncle yeah but I never had a reason to until I prayed with you well my uncle one is his wife are Christians and they shared with me like what you were sharing and they and they led me to Jesus and they're giving me a job and letting me live there so she goes back to school for like a few months but gets her GED because she's super smart gets her GED so she can go she's gonna go to college early and she's ready she's just like ready to go and then she calls me right for her 17th birthday cuz you'll never guess what's happening and I'm like watch because my uncle got an offer to buy this diner I connected a bowling out it's gonna be like a new trendy like hipster joint and he told me that if I work with and he'll give me like 50% ownership and this and help me like get into it I was like this is awesome this is what you're gonna go to business school for this is great because I'm not going to school I don't have time now like I'm gonna own my own very successful business I'm like you're 17 like I'm being dad you know wait a minute you know but she's it was so cool cuz she's like going I mean she's on our worship team now she's like you know singing she's like playing keyboard she never played keyboard she learned in six months I mean all kinds of stuff that happened you know now she's took 19 and a half 20 the last time I talked to her there in the diner it's going really well she has 75 percent ownership she's paid her uncle back too thirds of what it cost to get into the building cuz they own the building he owns a bowling alley she owns the diner I mean it's you guys she almost was a prostitute let that sink in she almost was a prostitute and all's I did was believe that God had a plan for a life I didn't believe that I had to be the voice of God I just believed that God had a plan for life and I just believed that God would tell her kiss he's already connected to her cuz she's already made and his original goodness yes there's original sin but we don't need to tell people to tell us what hell's like we're usually living it at some point we need people to tell us what happens like what God's like what his love nature is like at some point you're gonna have the conversation with heaven and hell but it shouldn't be the starting point there's been this pressure that if we don't show up and bring people to salvation like we're missing if otherwise if we don't show up and bring people to love which brings people to salvation then we're missing it so I read the statistic recently from dr. Henry Mason as a psychologist and he wrote in Christianity today said 90% of preachers would rate themselves in the top 10% of communicators in their field he said whenever we take on a role of an expert our learning actually stunts up to 90 percent we just stop learning now think about this the average little pastor down the street there's churches or worse I'm not pointing anyone specifically but down the street thinks he might have a church of 100 or to church this big or whatever thinks he's in the top 10% of the entire world of messages what is the average person preacher and church known for is it love is it contributing to their city is it finding God's redemptive value in the world around them usually it's about heaven and hell it's about joining churches it's about membership it's about tithing it's about you know a theological arguments of different types and so we're not known for the things we should be known for and if I think I'm an expert I'm gonna lead you an elitism to say we are the church you should come too and there's nothing else as good as ours and guess what the world is going to hell and this is what's happened because people have taken on a know-it-all expert attitude at the top levels of leadership of the church this isn't my this isn't just me saying it this is like a secular and Christian study at 90% of preachers in the world think they're in the top 10% which means their growth has been stunted and the people who are with them are then only buying into the theology of that they're saying cuz you're believing you're in the top 10% you're amazing you might be a church of 300 that has no impact in community but you're amazing has anybody ever come out of a church like that I have I've even bought it you know I've drank the kool-aid like this is amazing this is awesome and we were doing zero outside of our own reach no I love what we're doing our own reach but we're doing zero outside of it is that Kingdom is that salt so God wants to change the conversation and go from people who are the experts who come as no atolls which is the epitome of legalism to people who are on a learning journey of wonder Adam and Eve were created with awe and Wonder in their heart oh my gosh what is that God says you name it elephant Wow angels and I said six who are going around the throne and they're going holy holy they're not saying holy cuz they're having a religious experience experience of like I better say holy or else I'm gonna get in trouble they're saying it because they've since they've been created them and trying to find the end of God and they're still revolving around they haven't found as India like this is amazing my daughter's had chicken to zoo in LA here we have a great zoo and we went to the you know all these parts over and over and over when it was like oh we should take the other side cuz it's so far we just never heard the other side we've seen the other side of my four-year-olds like oh my gosh this has been here the whole time and I'm like gasps like this is amazing we have the best sue in the world you know and that's how we should be that's how we came in the world as those horse was trained all wonder of a hole that God has in the world that we'll never find his end we'll never find the full depth of God because he's that big he's eternal and we'll never understand it and that's part of what makes this childlike to say there's more to learn there's more to come into and grow into and when you come as a learner then you're teachable and when your teacher teachability is defined by a few things but one of them is you recognize your moments of learning now my life and I went through a period when we were dating where she was trying to give me advice about our marriage no it's kidding she was trying to give me advice about the church when we were doing some stuff in the church and it was really good stuff she was like why don't we do this and she just was coming up with some opinions and hone and Jennifer and I and a few others had been leading this church for a long time so what she was saying was a little bit challenging but it wasn't like massive challenging and I was I was thinking it's gonna take forever to explain to her why we've tried that it doesn't work and we should try something else and she's coming without the experience and trying to speak into it and it was frustrating to me so at one point I just kind of shut her down like I did that like the nice I don't even been shut down by somebody who's doing their church leadership shut down that's not like a nice relational shutdown but it's kinda like that's cute that's cute is equivalent of saying god bless her soul in the south it means you are being patronized big time she's like my wife who's a strong one was like uh-huh no she said if you want me to be in relationship with you long-term you have to be willing cuz you've been you've been a solo decision-maker for so long you're so used to you and God and no more or else you and God and like the Toledo's and a few others and no more but you've never had someone who like literally is with you every day making powerful decisions with you and so I feel like even and bringing things up to you that even if you're gonna say no I don't want you to say no in a way that shuts me down you have to say no in a way that empowers me to have a voice in your life not disempowers or my voice or I said I want to be with you and that I was caught between two things when I was like you jerk and part I was like this is sexy you know this is amazing [Applause] but you have to realize that how many people are the most powerful person in the world and aren't including somebody and that's when the epitome of untouchability is you're making all your own decisions and you have nobody you're doing life with and that's why it's not good for man to be alone permanently I don't believe in celibacy for 99.9% of people because I think that there's something that happens when you get married I mean Honus told me several times you're such a better man now and I'm like thanks thanks a lot I must have been really bad for a hold of the said cuz Honam never says it it's like a correction like I'm so glad you're finally married with kids cuz it was gettin ugly like that's what I hear you know it's like so much better but but something happens like when you're single like I my assistant was gonna come today and he had a bad night last night and I just health wise and so he's like welcomes more as like I can't come you know and I'm looking at that going man as a husband and a father actually real sick to not come to church I've been real real sick and I can't go like 30 minutes late cuz three people's lives day the girls won't get in their program my wife won't get into her favorite worship part which is usually like right in the beginning middle you know like it's like it gets real good right then and so she's like that's the first song she think needs to be in from the start she's shaking in that song and and you know like she's like she wants it so if I if I just like do the single thing and go hey guys we're gonna be late like there's I have to go to Starbucks and I have to do this and I do that so maybe we'll get there by like 15 minutes before preaching my family's like nah cuz I'm responsible and accountable to a people right and so I'm accountable and and when you're single it's not that you're not accountable you're just you're not account for other people and so it's different you can come in and rock in with your coffee 45 it's late we're not going to judge you much and uh the only reason I judge is if I couldn't get a coffee and you have one that's all the reasons you not because your spirituality but because I want your coffee but when you understand this there's a place where when you're not making decisions with somebody or for somebody even in your own relation with God a lot of times it becomes self-serving if you're not focused on being teachable and saying God I'm here to keep learning I'm not here as an expert I there's the areas in my life that have hit a peak god that means that I have to come as a learner again now I love this word teachable moments if you guys heard this words word in edge ocation teachable moments I'll just read real fast let me see okay it refers to a stage in child's development he is most receptive to learning a certain concept of skill as a culture we begin to adapt this through celebrity life coaches like Oprah and people like Obama during the racial crisis of the nation the Veterans Association used it in particular way to define what happens when trauma shared in a group of trauma survivors that it becomes a teachable moment for how to heal and break through so there's now it's become a common term and at least America a teachable moment which is a moment in time where you can learn the most when your soul your your heart your mind is open you learn the most I dare to say that we're in teachable moments as Christians all the time but are we learning because we literally have the Holy Spirit in us and there's something about as a Christian where you just when you're when you're really in your lane as a Christian when you're really thriving as a Christian where you're learning all the time and it's not like a PhD graduate who's like I have to go to another class and they sit and give straight A's I'm not saying that which this can be really fun for a PhD student but I'm saying like where you literally feel like you're growing when you're a little kid what do you want your next stage of life I want to you know we had a bike I'm gonna drive a car I'm gonna vote whatever it is you know like you want all those stages well as a Christian or as a human was just a human we're constantly want to grow as people when we're healthy we want to grow and we want to grow to the next level cuz you were made to be in a mature state that's always growing so that means that if you're teachable you're loving and you're thriving in the growth opportunity even when something's negative there's a party that grieves and there's a party that goes through the loss of the suffering but there's another party that kicks in to a higher spiritual here Allah says I wonder how God's gonna work this for my good and let this evil serve me I wonder how God's gonna turn this around for my life in the life of my family and the life of everyone who's connected to me so you even go into learning of like I'm watching my spiritual transitions because I know that God will always come through and I'm learning his nature even an evil points of life now I think of like I was with Donna and Jennifer in the hospital with Malaika when she was going through an episode last year and I remember asking I was like how are these other parents at Children's Mercy dealing with their life you guys are like you guys have Jesus to like lean and it's still extremely hard what they were doing with them we're we're like in critical care area so there's like kids with severe issues and I'm watching the parents walking it out and I'm like huh I just wanted to reach out to each what I'm like I love you I love you like you wouldn't do anything for them they'd just be like because they're in trauma they're in the emotional you know whatever and a lot of Christians get saved in trauma bonding moments and that's why it doesn't last because they only get saved because there's trauma and then they get saved and then they and then when the trauma is over they don't need it anymore and they just kind of go back to life but people who actually show up even before trauma people who learn how to have their life dependent on learning who God is you know people when people come up to you and they validate who you are in God and they recognize your maturity they recognize your love they don't act like they're above you they don't act like they know more than you but they've come as a learner as well those are your favorite people you tell a story and they don't go oh I've been there and I've done that oh I remember five years ago when I went through that which makes me feel like a failure like he went through this five years ago Wow I thought was pretty mature but I five years of growth to do now you know like people who are religious always are placing you in the context of their own story not in God's story but people who know how to love go I can't relate to that but I had empathy for you if I had gone to hone and Jennifer when they were in the hospital is my can I go oh my gosh I know when my dog was dying it was really hard they would look at me like what are you talking about that is a dog this is a human that we don't know what's happening to this is our daughter it would have been so inappropriate but Christians are constantly patronizing other people by trying to have a personal relationship and empathy is enough just saying I don't understand but I'm trying to and I love you so sorry you're going through what you're going through the world wants people who agree with them more with them laugh with them celebrate with them these are all the things that don't happen I mean think about the holidays there's so many things that are not happening for people that should be in family even here in Los Angeles I'm they have the turkey stuffing sandwich at Starbucks I talked to one of the ladies at Starbucks in today's she said we had about fifty single people coming in order this because this was their whole Thanksgiving this year and like no God said so lonely in families and Starbucks is not family but being salt means we've recognized people's value and it's not asking them anymore it's your learning - you're good - you're valuable - today you might be in this place of your heart that maybe not all of it's safe for me but I'm gonna choose to see what's safe for me and dwell there with you and that's a totally different mentality when you come as a learner to say I want to learn from the world around me I love dr. Maya Angelou who I want to quote about once every week she said when people show you who they are believe them this is what the church is terrible at so when he's not saved as like hey I really have a heart for the poor - and you're like mm-hmm you don't know what justice is you're a humanitarian that's not justice Kingdom justice when you do missions you got to go and do a prayer meeting for 24 hours before you even get food you know like we have this like attitude towards human justice human kindness right that's all humanism that's illegal istic that's that's called dualism that means you think everything that's not inherently done by the church is not spiritual valuable Jesus treated everybody like they were worthy and worth it he went to the guy Zacchaeus and said Zacchaeus I'm gonna come spend time at your house that the religious community said he's a dirtbag and then Jesus goes I don't care I'm still spend time with him in that case is like I'm gonna try and give to the poor I tried in that attitude was enough for Jesus to say I've seen it happen I've seen you've impacted happen what's your gifts to the poor and who you are Cornelius Peter with the cornea versus house who didn't know Jesus and he was sent to a Gentile house he didn't theology for it you guys and he was sent to a Gentile house and he said your offerings the poor have come to the attention of heaven and here's some of us to go well Bill Gates and whoever else is just all humanity humanism it's not real no no not only is it real but we should esteem it and give it dignity because of what Jesus did on the cross he took away that the lack of dignity from these situations on the cross and if we're gonna be salt we have to recognize the goodness that's in humanity the holiness of God the original image of God that's still there even if there's all of this - we're called to celebrate the stamp of God on each human being on the earth and to say I can come to agreement with God on you Jesus did it I can do it too I was challenging we had a group of leaders that are at our event with Hahn and Jennifer and I and Cherie we did an event called love coalition we do every year this is our seventh year and it's all emerging leaders and I've read some of the statistics about the 90 percent of pastors believe they're in the top 10% and this kind of thing and one of the leading psychologists on teachability right now he said you know when someone's teachable when they come out into life with this statement what I'm learning today is so if somebody is talking to you and they're telling you all the things you've already learned or they're telling you what they're going through but they're not telling you the vulnerability of what they're learning in it they're just telling you the hardship but I'm okay because Jesus is good but they're not they can't articulate what they're learning they're not actually being teachable what I'm learning today is and in the last generation just recently like the 90s psychology actually celebrated adaptability which looks like teach ability but all that means is that you could become adaptable to your work space and your capacity to grow even in trauma or times of great push or times a great hardship that you become adaptable and you become dependable as a worker because now you're adaptable and that was what was celebrated and then leadership coaches around the world we're teaching corporations when you're adaptable that's enough like if you get an adapter employee you can go anywhere that's not true because the realities to each ability has two characteristics one has adaptability in it but it's not adaptability teach ability means I'm always learning that's the number one characteristic I'm always learning and I feel like it learning to the world around me so I feel like I'm not an expert I feel like I'm on a learner and then number two I can teach others what I'm learning and people have adaptability are known for not being able to impart that adaptability to other people how many of you had somebody who's really adaptable in your life anybody did you learn how to be adaptable from them or as are they just they're a unicorn right there's different you know healing evangelist in the 1950s and 60s who were unicorns he never taught anybody to do what they were doing because they're extremely adaptable and we celebrate them ago they were amazing some of the icons of Catholicism we look at them and go they were phenomenal mother Teresa amazing but they were adaptable humans their calling but there's a teach ability that God is requiring now that bothering and mothering does and if you want to be a salt to the earth around you you're gonna be a father or a mother which means you're gonna help train people how to go on a learner's journey and you're not gonna do it from always being the expert you're going to do it from having a whimsical wonder of the world around you people who are disappointed and jaded and disillusion cannot come into this kind of learner state because they impart the critical nature of what they're seeing whether they impart the character of what they're saying okay we're almost done I'll just read this reflection I think it's relevant no.31 scription will be done this in other words I'm certain mid-sentence so teach abilities it's characterized by learning attitude not an expert perspective in other words never being condescending or thinking we know it all this is not the spiritual gift of teaching rather the call to pass on God's love and insight to others it is first being a learner absorbing and applying what God does for us then replicating it to others to be a person who can't eat so we have to be a person who's teachable David had the chance to teach his children and let them learn Solomon had the chance to teach ro of them we have a generation of leaders right now that are trying to empower by being a giving position and authority but not creating the authority structure through imparting their own vulnerability and what they're learning in moments of great weakness and success it takes courage to lead this way and it takes courage to be a teacher this way so sharing out of a place of even the weakness of what you're currently overcoming not just the 20 years ago things have you ever heard somebody who's sharing their God stories and they're all from like the 80s that you don't trust them very much it's like that's nice that happened in Africa 20 years ago I don't know about you it's the same with your heart stuff if all your heart stuff is behind you by 20 years we went to counseling 15 years ago we're fine now that scares people what are you learning right now because what you're learning right now if you're in your 50s or 60s as relevant to 20 year olds around you what you're learning right now as the 20th is relevant to 30 year olds around you when you come out of teach ability you can be salt to people who aren't even in the same conversation as you because you're willing to listen and learn their perspective this is why the church has had such an epic failure with people groups such as homosexuality community so the homosexual community at large and we have not listened because we've tried to define all the boundaries before we would go on a listening journey because we're afraid of being infected by something that would violate our boundaries Jesus was never afraid of the infection of the world it says good characters crafted by bad company bad company is really obvious because it's trying to actually change you into something you don't want to be but there's lots of people who are good company who may have total differences in theology viewpoint lifestyle life skills anything than you but that doesn't mean they're bad company to you because they can't warp your viewpoint because you have identity and so therefore some of the best people for you is your unsaved workers that at work you know is the environment like if you stay in a small environment but you're called like I'm gonna I guess we'll just do Bible School but you're called the entertainment industry you're actually gonna get oppressed and fall away from the Lord Bible School because you will you will bloom where you're supposed to be planted but if you're planted in the wrong soil you're gonna die so Bible School could be the ones are the bad ungodly people who hurt you not because they're not godly but because they're not your environment you're supposed to be in so you're in charge of the environment you're called to in most environments were called to it says in Isaiah 60 you know we are a light and there's great darkness around us and we're called to go into the darkness if you don't know the darkness you're called to go into you're gonna die and the light inside of you will feel like it's diminishing and you'll feel like that old Sun that's so boring but like our church vision right now he wants to shine us from the highest place he can shine us from and he wants us to be a city on the hill to be a city on a hill we have to change our conversation of how in our approach of how we relate to outsiders and people who we don't know and understand and we have to say I'm willing to understand you I totally value you I give you dignity in this conversation regardless if I agree with you or not my love will accept you regardless if I accept what you believe my love will fully accept you as a as a person my job is not to change you my responsibility is not to save you that's God's but I'm gonna love really well and if I get the opportunity to present the Gospel message I will because I love the gospel but my job isn't to even get you saved my job isn't to start there my job is to feel like the Holy Spirit to you and the Holy Spirit has names our friend counselor comforter is that what the world feels like when they're around you is that how they feel when they're around us as a church expression 58 there's a world when they're around an expression 50 a person go there's something on you guys I just feel believed in I feel like I feel like dreamers are around me with me that they're dreaming with me not just people have big lives themselves with people who want to dream with me you guys are amazing I feel like friends when I've had no friends here in LA I feel like comfort in the areas that I don't even know how to bring up I didn't even know how to talk about but the way you talk about how God comforts you right now currently is the way I needed him and me man thanks for being vulnerable as that our testimony is that our message we need to change our conversation method but it comes from a conviction inside that says God thank you that I've escaped all because of the cross help me to love everybody around me as though they're worthy of escaping it to help me to love everybody around me like you're already in mid-sentence with them help me to join your conversation you're already and help me to treat them with not an us-and-them value like I have it they don't but they already have a measure of you that I need to respect honor validate and say yes last last thing I'll say is Paul Young at the right of the shack he's been judged recently as a universalist which is really funny because it's not at all he's a very theological guy and he was the continent an argument with that person and it was on YouTube or whatever and they asked him directly like on an interview show are you a universalist and he goes I in life I like to think that everyone's going to heaven that's how I want to treat everybody I want them to feel when they're around me like they have the full potential to be in heaven with me and he goes but I do believe in Hell so that all they heard was everyone's going to heaven no your Universalist you know you're an inclusion is everybody gets to go that's not what he said at all he was saying the attitude of how I want to treat people is though they're worthy of heaven right now like Jesus did and I just think like what would we be like if people were like if they didn't have to have the argument of like you don't even believe that I'll go to heaven with you and you just go I don't have to that's not my thing I have to but I'm just believing in God in you that God loves you and that he's in you in your made in His image and I'm gonna treat you like you're going to heaven if you want to know more about that let's talk as opposed to happen to be like oh you're going to hell I feel so bad I don't know how to be around to you it's weird like what Satan right now and my my perspective that's how we treat people like oh you're kind of feel like hell dummy can you imagine who's gonna who's gonna love well in that like who's gonna receive you if you feel like your whole life is preaching to them and the way your culture of your heart is preaching - yeah you're already on your way to help it kind of smell like sulfur if the salt loses its saltiness the number one way that the salt loses its saltiness is if we don't treat the world with the value that Jesus paid a price for if we treat the world with that value the whole world will come to Jesus got Stan who you gonna be some salt I want you to just think about this week even when you're out about people you see and you know that your hearts drawn to or maybe it's a co-worker or family member or whatever maybe someone on the street maybe it's one of that pantheist we have a lot of right now some of them are you know professional panhandlers that's what they do for life some of them are really down on their luck yeah and I want you to just think like what if I could have a conversation and ask God questions with them where God would answer the gods already in a conversation he doesn't even need me to prophesy or Evangel and I see just seems to be to love but I want you to think like what if I didn't have to perform what if I didn't have to come with a lot of performance and be like okay I'll be an evangelist right now but I could just be me in relationship because introverts can do this some of you're like I'm interpreter I need evangelism no no no everybody loves to see Jesus increase but you have to learn how you do that in your space and how he does not throw you but what if you could just the people who you already love who don't know Jesus if you can learn how to sew into God's nature God's image of who he is inside of them so I want us to pray for someone think about somebody and if you can't think of anybody directly just just open your heart to this but think about somebody in your life that doesn't know Jesus and ask God some of the things that he values about them that you've never seen before let's just do that listen to him right now Holy Spirit show us some of the things you value about this person that maybe we've not looked at or maybe we've seen it before but we didn't realize this was like part of your redemptive nature inside of them now we're gonna pray one more thank god help us to have conversations with that person in this Christmas season about these things could help us to have a conversation with the people around us about the things that are you inside of them even if they're not saved to value and validate the lord take any any us in them any elitism any any know-it-all off of any of us any pressure to be any pressure to perform just take it off of us God we just pray that our only dead our only responsibility would be love just like the Roman says well just put the responsibility of love on us but take every other false responsibility off Lord give us such a Saltine agent nature but we talk about good salty we rebrand that right now in Jesus name hashtag good salty and I pray that God's Spirit would be over you to see people the way they're supposed to be seen the way Jesus sees them the way that the conversation heaven between the Trinity goes the Father the Holy Spirit in Jesus saying oh I love that one oh I love them so much and the church would say but they don't even like you they don't even pay attention to you but they're mine I love them I have all kinds of plans of how to reveal myself to him do wanna be part of it Lord let us be part of that conversation in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Expression 58

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Keywords: expression58, e58, expression 58, shawn bolz, jona toledo, jen toledo, jennifer toledo, los angeles, hope, salt, glendale, be the salt

Id: 7F3-ZDy_4F4

Length: 46min 29sec (2789 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 24 2017