Hey, one other thing before
we jump into the message-- super excited about my most
recent book, I Declare War. We put together a devotional
reading plan for it so people can, on the
YouVersion platform, download for free a devotional. So if you're looking for a
new devotional reading plan, check out the I Declare War
one, which is up now for free. And-- [CLAPS AND CHEERS] --super excited about that. The Swipe Right and The Eyes of
a Lion ones are there as well. They've been gone through
hundreds of thousands of times. And it's really exciting to see. The YouVersion folks tell us
that our plans have a higher than normal completion rate. A lot of people start reading
plans that don't-- that trail off. Who's been there? Come on. Who's dropped out in like
Leviticus in February? Like, I was going to read
the whole Bible this year. [LAUGHTER] Something about the fat on
the kidneys freaked me out and I bailed. But what's cool
is they've told us that our plans have a higher
than normal completion rate, so that's pretty exciting. And so this one's out there now. So check out the I Declare War. Yeah. Good chance to stir back
up some of those things that we were
learning, that's going through the book, and
the series, of course. That's out there for
free at YouVersion. Check it out. If you have a Bible,
this week we're going to be in First
Peter, Chapter Two, in this series of messages
that we're in called "Mad About the House." [CLAPS AND CHEERS] "Mad About the House." We are-- if you're one of the
four people who are excited about that, then I-- please do see me
afterwards so I hug you. All the rest these hate-filled,
frozen people who are watching me preach-- I can tell how it's going to
go down at the 9:00 up in here. OK. [LAUGHTER] "Mad About the House." [CLAPS AND CHEERS] Come on, somebody. We're mad. [CLAPS AND CHEERS] You can't say "Mad About
the House" casually. Right. OK? I'm fired up about something. Like, I'm really
excited about it. [LAUGHTER] "Mad About the House." That's what this se-- we are crazy passionate
about what Jesus died for. That's what this series is. He died to build a bride. He died to form the Church. He died to call us
out of the world. [CLAPS AND CHEERS] To call us out of the grave. To call us to life. To call us to heaven. We're met-- we are
fired up about what God is crazy passionate
about, and that is the Church. That's what was on Jesus's
mind as he hung on that cross. And so we are going to care
for what Jesus died for. That's what the series is
about-- stirring that up in our hearts. And we've come to a perfect
place in First Peter, Two, with a message that I'm
calling "Coming to Yourself." Have you ever come to yourself? Where you snap out of
a daze a little bit and you come back to
your senses a little bit? Has that ever happened to you
in your driveway, where you realize, how did I get home? You come to yourself. You're like, I don't remember
anything about this drive. What's happening? Sometimes I come
to myself eating. I'm like, what am I doing? Have you ever done that? Have you ever found
yourself eating something you don't even like? You're like, I don't like this. I guess I'll finish it. What is happening to me? I got so frustrated
the other day. I just grabbed the hot sauce
and poured it on pancakes. They were not good. I was just eating them. Like, I was-- ahh. I'm all, they're not
even hot anymore. I was just mindless. I was just-- finish
these pancakes. I said, get thee
behind me, devil. So I poured some
hot sauce on them. [LAUGHTER] Came to my-- say
"coming to yourself." Coming to yourself. You're not getting a
participation trophy for that. [LAUGHTER] I refuse. First Peter, Chapter 2. "Therefore, laying aside all
malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil
speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure
milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. "Coming to him as to a living
stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also, as living
stones, are being built up a spiritual house,
a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also
contained in the scripture. 'Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes in Him will
by no means be put to shame.' "Therefore, to you who
believe--" that's the Church-- "He is precious-- but to
those who are disobedient, 'the stone which the builders
rejected has become the chief cornerstone,' and 'a stone
of stumbling and a rock on offense.' They stumble, being disobedient
to the Word, to which they also were appointed. But you--" someone
say, "but you." But you. "--are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his
own special people, that you may proclaim the
praises of Him who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light-- who once were not
a people but now are the people of God,
who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. Beloved, I beg you as
sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts
which war against the soul, having your conduct
honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak
against you as evildoers, they may, by your good
works which they observe, glorify God in the
day of visitation." And Father, we thank
you for this passage. So much in it-- so much that
points us to who Jesus is, to what Jesus has done,
and to what He's doing and how we can get the
most of all of that, and not miss out on any of that
by what we're participating in, even at this very moment. And we pray for any
who at this moment are not a part of
the people of God-- are not a part of those
who have received mercy. We pray that your
spear would help them to see you as lovely,
as worthy, as precious, and to not reject a stone that's
actually the chief cornerstone. We pray against, God, a
deathbed realization two seconds after we die, of
realizing who you actually are when we see you. But it being too late
to do anything about it. We pray that many
in this moment would come to know you--
come to life in Christ. And that it would
happen by your Spirit. And we pray this
in Jesus's name. Amen. Amen. I always wanted to surf. I grew up in New
Mexico and Colorado. It's complicated. You're like, you just
named two places. I know. I always get like a deer
in the headlights moment when people say,
where are you from? Like, where are you from? That's an easy question. It's like, I should be
able to go, oh, I'm from-- well, I'm from Montana,
but lived in California. But I was born in Colorado, but
I spent 10 years in New Mexico. [LAUGHTER] Right? And by time I get
through all of that, they're giving me the
look that tells me, I was just being polite. Don't actually care. Didn't need to know any of that. You could've just
said, I'm from America. We'd have been good with that. You ever realize halfway
through a long answer, they didn't actually even care? You're like, I should have
just gone like, somewhere. And they'd be like, oh, good. Me, too. [LAUGHTER] It's like the obligatory, "Have
a nice meal," the hostess says. And you go, "You, too." And you're like, ah! I did it again. I'm never going do that again. Did it again. Anybody with me on that one? Yes. You get those moments? Yep. Awesome. Those of you are just
awkward, like, mm. You look at them. They're like, yeah,
you're a moron. Yep. [LAUGHTER] I know. Thank you for that. So I always wanted to
surf, and when I finally lived in California, I
got to surf quite a bit. And I had some good friends who
took me out for the first time. And they were such
good friends, they did the worst thing you could
do taking someone out surfing. Pretty much told me, don't
die, and then left me. That was the thing they-- have fun. Paddle like crazy. And then they just bailed on me. And I made the novice
mistake of trying to go out at the height of a set-- waves come in sets. Maybe it's 10, maybe
it's 12, maybe it's 13. But they come in sets,
and then there's a lull, and then they come in sets. And so I, at the beginning of
a set, tried to paddle out. And what I did was
what you should never do-- try to paddle straight
out through the impact zone. The impact zone is where the
wave coming in from deep water finally rushes up to either
a sandbar or to a coral reef, and so now having a deep water
wave, which is relatively mostly underwater, now
finding itself hitting higher elevation, hitting a
hill or hitting a rise or hitting a bluff, is now going
to come up out of the water and then fold in on itself,
breaking, as they say. And then thus begins
the whitewater. And if it's a big wave,
thus begins the pain for any moron trying to paddle
a surfboard who doesn't know how to duck dive, or in
any way what to do, trying to get out straight over
what now is a wall of water coming straight at you. And surfers describe
going over the falls. It sounds better than it is. It's oh, that sounds lovely. It's awful. Where the wave just
takes you, and you see the wave coming at you. You're paddling like crazy,
and then all of a sudden, you find yourself going
backwards and crashing down. And now all of that weight
of water is on top of you, and you're trying
to find your way up. But it's easy to get disoriented
when you are under a wave. And now you're actually
swimming up, but it's down. And so as long as you-- you have
to pull your leash to find you. And other times, your leash
is just snagged on a rock, and so now you have to
get the lead off the thing so you can breathe, which
is really important, if you think about it, and-- [LAUGHTER] And this is not a promotional
advertisement for surfing, probably. But I found myself in the wrong
conditions on the wrong day at the wrong place with
obviously the wrong friends, dealing-- get a lesson. Just let me just encourage
you to get a lesson. And so I found myself
in all kinds of hurt. And eventually, I sorted it out. But not too long
ago, a friend really opened my eyes to help
me understand the key to surfing successfully. And that, of course,
would be-- number one, timing the sets is key. But the other is not trying
to go through the impact zone at all. But instead, doing what
they call channeling out. You see, there has
to be a channel which is deeper water somewhere
so the waves can recede-- the waves can retreat back to
the sea from whence they came. I love using the word
"whence" and I'll do it as often as I can. And you can't stop me. So of course, I told you
that the waves come in from deep water, and
then they form into waves where they find shallow water. But then as they retreat
back to the ocean-- and the moon's involved,
and I don't know. I don't want to get into all
the specifics on all of that with the tide, because a
lot of it freaks me out. But as they go away,
here's one thing you need to know about water. This is really important. Water is lazy. It will always,
always, always look for the path of
least resistance. And you can tell in
a second that water is so lazy by just
flying in an airplane and looking down at any river. They will never be straight. They will always be so crooked. Why? Because the moment they
see a hill, they're like, we're not going that way. Well, the water is lazy,
and so it refuses to go up. It'll just be the crookedest,
winding-est thing. Why? Because it's looking for the
path of least resistance. Well, water behaves exactly
the same in the ocean. And so the waves
that have come in now are going to go back out,
but it was shallow ground that caused them to crash. So they're not going
to go that way. Water is going to
look for a path, or look for a channel
of deep water. And so a large amount
of water will suck back out to sea using what's called
a channel, which is a pathway. And between breaks, there's
going to be a pathway. And if you just watch-- but when you get to a beach
before you start surfing, those who have done it
for a while, you'll always see them channeling
out or paddling out at a place where there's a channel
in between the breaks. And so basically, it's
a little moving sidewalk to where you can channel
out, catch a wave, channel out, catch a
wave, and never have to go through what I did--
that is, the impact zone. It's changed the
way I see the ocean. It's changed the way I surf. It's made it a lot
more enjoyable. Well, here in this
text, believe it or not, is two sister ideas
of a pathway-- a channel, so to speak-- where it's easy,
where you can get out, where there's no impact
happening, and the impact zone are both at play. Why is that? Well, because here's the thing. As nice as the channel
is, you can't stay there if you actually want to surf. Yeah, it's peaceful in
the channel all right. It's nice in the
channel all right. It's nice just to be in
this lane going this way, and I'm just doing
my thing over here, and I'm not having a nice,
leisure paddle back out. It's nice over
here, but you can't stay in the safety
of the channel and actually do any surfing. At a certain point,
you've got to choose to just get into that
impact zone and paddle for a wave, come what may. And that is what I
want you to bring with you into our study of
this text in First Peter, because here he is trying
to tell us how powerful, like a wave rushing that
can take you, lift you up out of the water,
for the exhilarating ride of your lifetime--
how powerful this thing is that we're a part of,
called the Church. And he helps us to see that by
employing one of the Bible's most favorite analogies
for the Church, and that is that of a building. In the Old Testament,
it was this idea of the tabernacle
and then the temple. In the New Testament,
this building is clarified as
being the Church. But what it is is the dwelling
place for God's spirit-- a dwelling place for
God, where God's presence can be experienced-- where God
wants to come down to earth and work amongst his people. It's the Church, and we
all, distinct from the Old Testament, when you would go to
the tabernacle and you would go to a tent-like structure, and
someone would represent you-- the high priest. And he could only go into
where God's presence dwell between the angels on the cover
of the Ark of the Covenant. That high priest could
only go in one day a year, on the Day of Atonement. And even on that day,
it was so limited that half the time that guy
couldn't even do his duty. He couldn't even fulfill it. Sometimes he would die on the
spot, because he was unworthy. So they actually
developed a system where the high priest, when he
would go into represent God's people, and you're standing
there, dude, it was a good? Was it awesome? Did He say anything? Sometimes that guy would
stop moving in there. He would fall over dead. So the system they
developed was they put bells all over his clothes. And if he was unworthy
and fell over dead while he was doing
his job, bringing the blood into the Ark of the
Covenant, which all pointed forward to Jesus, which
all pointed forward to the actual reality
that God was planning-- it was just a blueprint
that he laid out so that we could see
what he was going to do-- what he was going to build. That guy would drop dead, and
so the bells would stop ringing. They had a rope tied
around his ankle. They would pull that sucker out. They would bury that chump,
and they would give the outfit to someone else, who had better
had his quiet time that day, I tell you what. You don't want to be-- pick you. Like be the high priest, you're
like, pick somebody else, right? And all of that was so limited. All of that was so veiled. But then the moment
came when Jesus Christ, hanging on the cross-- when Jesus had
brought His blood-- the blood of a better
covenant, not the blood of bulls and goats. It was the blood
of the precious Son of God-- the chief cornerstone. [CLAPS AND CHEERS] The foundation of all
that God was going to do. When He said the
words, "It is finished. Paid in full. The debt of your sin
and mine has been canceled if we believe in Him." And as He said those words,
the veil in the temple was torn top to bottom. Not bottom to top, as though we
had worked our way up to God, but top to bottom. Because on the basis
of what Jesus had done, God the Father tore that veil
in half and said, it's done. Come on in. Enter into the new covenant. Enter into a
relationship with me, not on the basis of
what you achieved, but on the basis of what
my Son has accomplished. And so now it's not a temple. It's not a veil. It's the Church. And it's a church made up
of you and made up of me. And Peter says,
don't you see it? You are a living stone-- a living stone stacked
up by the Master Mason, who with spackle,
and with His trowel, is building a holy habitation-- a dwelling place for God. When He fills this
earth with power, He's not filling a structure. He's filling us-- filling each
other in our sacred assembly. How does that work? It works like this. When you've come to
Christ, God lives in you. And when I came to
Christ, God lives in me. But in some unique
way, some mystical way, some way that defies
understanding, that's more than the
sum of its parts, when we come together as
we are in this moment, He is somehow more
in our dwelling, more in-- where two or more
are gathered in His name, He's there in the midst. And at this moment,
we are living stones who have come together,
and God is in this place. The spirit of Jesus
is here in power to heal, in power to save,
in power to transform. We at this very moment
are a dwelling place for God in the spirit. That's what it means
to be the Church. But this analogy
of living stones stacked one upon another-- it does not imply the idea of a
service you attend once a week or once a month. It does not imply
a casual spectator coming in and going out,
unnoticed, anonymously. What it means is to be known. What it means is to be needed. What it means is to belong. What it means is to be a part. What it means is
to be discipled. What it means is
to be developed. What it means is to
be cared and loved, and all that goes with it. Because bricks-- think about it. And if you're in
a location where there are bricks
around you, feel free to look at them
as a living analogy. At this very moment, I
know the Infinity Event Center in Salt Lake City
does not have bricks, but some of our churches do. And so feel free to look at it
as I talk about what it means to be bricks one upon another. Because they are entirely
dependent on each other for the structural
integrity of the building. They are entirely
dependent on each other. They are resting on those
that are below them, and they are supporting
those that are above them, and they are giving strength
to those that are beside them. That's what it
means to be a brick. And the Bible says,
you are a living stone. You are a brick in this
building that God is-- And if you could just come
and go without anyone caring, come and go without anyone
knowing, you're not a brick. You're not a part
of the structure. There should be those who go,
oh, so-an-so, she's not here. She's not here. Where's she at? Where's he at? Hasn't been here for awhile. Care about them. They have a part to play. They haven't been giving. They're not pulling their load. Man, are they not praying? What's going on? Because all of a sudden, this
shaky house feels like Jenga. Now, all of a sudden-- it's all of a sudden. And if your absence
can go unnoticed-- if your contribution is
not felt, if your giving, if your serving, if your pray-- if you're not vibrantly,
intrinsically connected into the warp and the
wolf, into the sinew, into the part and the parcel-- if you're not in the
guts of this thing-- I'm telling you, if you don't
have ownership in this thing, if there's not skin in
the game in this thing, I'm going to tell you something. [CLAPS AND CHEERS] Then how can you say
you're a living stone? Right. How can you say you're helping
hold this thing together with your prayers and with
your gifts and with you-- how can you? Because let me just
tell you something. What Peter is
trying to tell you-- what we need to understand--
what we need to see is to the degree that you're
doing life with God's people in that way as a living stone. To the degree that
you're doing that, you will experience the
glory of God in your life. To the degree-- Peter's telling you
that you're doing that-- living stone-- you will
experience the glory of God in your life. What will this work like? What will this look like? Number one, it will
look like revelation. To the degree that
you're a living stone, you will experience
rich revelation and contribute to
the rich revelation. What do I mean? I mean this. In a way that you cannot
experience God on your own in your own quiet time, in a way
that you cannot experience God in nature. As great as a podcast
is, I believe, in a way that you cannot
experience God through a podcast or even a book study-- in a way that you
can't know God. You can know him in a part,
in a moment, in a lifestyle, in an experience where
you're a part of the Church that Jesus is building. What do I mean? I mean this. I mean intimacy comes
through community. Intimacy comes
through community. Can I put it another way? It takes a group of people
to know an individual. At least, that's how C.
S. Lewis explained it in his book The Four Loves. The Bible was written in Greek
primarily-- the New Testament, anyhow. There's also some
Aramaic in there as well. And then, of course
Hebrew quotations, which we came across quite a
few in the passage we just read. There was peppering in
of Isaiah, et cetera. But Greek primarily. And C. S. Lewis
noticed that there are four different words for love. We're at a limitation in
English, because when you go, "I love you,"
that's the same word you use to describe the Red
Sox and chocolate, right? And that's not really
fair for your wife. But the truth is that the
New Testament is much more powerful-- sophisticated. You're not at putt-putt
with one club in your hand. You have a whole bag of
clubs in many instances. So for example, love has
four different Greek words-- "storge," which is
father-son love. You have "agape," which is God's
divine love-- sacrificial love. You have "eros," which is,
of course, erotic love. But then you also
"philia," which is a brotherly love, or
the love of a friend, or the love of community. It's not face-to-face love, like
a lover looking in the eyes. It's side-to-side love of
someone who stands beside you and moves towards a
mutual cause with you. And it is this philia,
brotherly love, that is used and employed
in the New Testament to describe the love
that we within the church should exhibit. Our church should be a brotherly
and sisterly kind of love as we are in this family. It shouldn't be like a hotel
where you check in, check out, we like to say. But rather, it's like a home. You're planted in it where
there's chores that you do. Yes, there's pleasures and pain. And there's beautiful days and
rough times and all of that. And C. S. Lewis was a part of
a group of friends like that. You could call it
his small group. They even had a name
for their small group. They called themselves
"The Inklings." And they were all, of
course, authors and writers. And so they would gather
together at a certain spot, and they would discuss things
they were going through in life and literature and
what they were working on. It was just-- they were sharing
in the community of life as believers. And one of those
in the group died-- Charles. Right after World War II,
this man took ill and died. And in his essay on what
brotherly and sisterly love, this philia love looks
like, C. S. Lewis spoke about what
the death of Charles actually meant to
the entire group. And he found that it was far
more profound than he knew. Listen to this excerpt. "In each of my friends
there is something that only some other
friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large
enough to call the whole man into activity-- I want other lights than my
own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is
dead, I shall never again see Ronald's reaction to
a specifically Charles joke. Far from having more
of Ronald, having him 'to myself' now that Charles
is away, I have less of Ronald. "In this, friendship
exhibit a glorious 'nearness by resemblance' to
heaven itself where the very multitude
of the blessed, which no man can number,
increases the fruition which each of us has of God. For every soul, seeing
Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that
unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why
the seraphim in Isaiah's vision are crying 'holy, holy, holy'-- not to God, but "to one another. "The more we" see "thus share
the heavenly bread between us, the more we shall have." What is C. S. Lewis saying? He's saying that when
friend Charles died, it wasn't the death
of one of his friends. It was actually death of two. Because he didn't
just lose Charles. He lost the version of
Ronald that Ronald became in the presence of Charles. Thus, he also lost
the version of himself that he became in the
presence of Ronald, who is in the presence of Charles. Do you see what I'm saying? I'm saying it takes a group
to know an individual. And the same is true
when it comes to God. And that's what the seraphim
in Isaiah 6 picked up on, and that's why they were
remarking to each other how holy God is-- not just
to tell God how holy He was, but to communicate to each
other what they had just seen in God's face. And they actually
took more pleasure from seeing each other
react to God than just had they seen Him themselves. And you're wondering,
how are they just going around and around? Because they were having
the best time ever telling each other what they just saw. And they just saw
something new, and they had to tell someone about it. How frustrating is it to
go to a new restaurant, but not to get to
tell anybody about it? Bro, you gotta go there. Oh, my gosh. It's so good. You've got to order this. You've got to sit at this table. Oh, you've gotta have
that person serve you. They're so funny. They're so great. It's such a gas. My kids are still talking
about the girl who pretended to pour mustard
on me from a breakfast we had four years ago. [LAUGHTER] Oh, that waitress. Remember, Dad,
when she pretended to pour mustard on you? Well, yeah, the
best day of my life. I had to preach
after that, honey. That's not funny. I had a white shirt on. It's not enough to see
something that moves you. You have to tell
someone about it. That's right. Yeah. I had a great surf session on
my family vacation this year. Best ever, because a turtle
popped up in between waves. Turtle popped up
right by next to me. First, I almost wet myself. Which would have been fine,
because I was already wet. Right. Because I thought
it was a shark. But then it was a turtle,
and I was like, oh, my gosh. And the turtle turned and looked
at me-- looked me in the eye. And said, "Paddle hard." And I did. [LAUGHTER] And I caught a wicked ride. It was a great-- but I couldn't wait to tell
my friend Ricky-- my friend Ricky who had taught
me about the channels. I've been surfing with
him for almost nine years. Ricky is just a legend. And this guy's wild. He one time windsurfed to
between the Hawaiian Islands. Brought a credit card
and a screwdriver. [LAUGHTER] Credit card in case
he had to fly back. A screwdriver in case he
needed to disconnect the sail and paddle back. Just "loco in la
cabeza," all right? But the right kind of guy
to take you out surfing. But I couldn't wait to tell
Ricky about the turtle. Then the next set, he catches
this unbelievable ride on his new "foil" board that
pulls him out of the water. Google it. You won't even
believe what you see. So he's riding out of the water
on a wing that's in the water. He's like three or
four feet above it, and he comes right at me. I think I'm going
to get past him. Oh, no. He's way faster than I
am taking into account. And he comes flying by me
on the face of the wave that I just managed to get over
before it curls over on itself, and I see the smile on his face. It is from ear to
ear on this wave. I'm telling you, I got
more joy from his smile than any wave I caught that day. And I couldn't wait to
tell him about the turtle. I'm like, "Did you
see the turtle?" And he said, "What did
turtle say to you?" I said, "He said, 'Paddle
hard.'" And he goes, "No, you misheard him. He said, 'Move to
Maui.'" I said, "He might have
actually said that." [LAUGHTER] And actually, if I have to keep
preaching to a sleepy 9:00 AM-- [LAUGHTER] You see what I'm saying? So here's what happens. In the moment you experience
something, that's powerful. But then when you
look beside you and you see that
someone beside you is having that
similar experience, it actually transforms
and changes it. [CLAPS AND CHEERS] You see why it's so
important you don't miss out on the gathering? Do you see why? Because I need to
see God in your eyes. I need to worship God, knowing
that my brothers and sisters in Salt Lake City
and in Portland, that we're all experiencing God. It's about what we're
experiencing together. And it's us actually being
transformed into God's house together. And we're somehow going
to see more of God as we share in that-- in our groups and in our
gatherings and in our rallies and in our moments when
we're sharing the pain and sharing the pleasure. In some unique way, we
are able to experience more of-- it takes a group
to know an individual, and we get to see more of
God together than we ever could by ourself. So when for whatever reason you
choose to stick to the channel, whether you got taken over
the falls at a previous church experience where you
were burnt or betrayed or gossiped about or didn't
get picked to be on the team that you wanted to be on-- didn't get the
opportunity that someone of your standing within
the church community should have been
given, because you've been coming for so much longer
than that newbie who was given the solo in that worship song. Whatever it is that
caused you-- maybe it was much worse than that. There are older brothers
in every church. There's the spirit of religion
that comes in and creeps in. There's difficult
things that happen. There are horrible
pastors and preachers who have done terrible things. So for whatever
reason you decided to leave the impact
zone, and you went to the safety of the
channel and decided to-- whether it was actually
by leaving the Church and being Jesus, yes,
Christianity, no. Or spiritual but not religious. Or love God, but not
into the formalized rule. For whatever reason
you chose to stick to the safety of the channel,
let me tell you something. Where the waves are,
there is the impact zone that can do harm. And yes, it happens. But that's the only place
where you can serve. It's what God's doing. It's where His Spirit's working. It's where God is transforming. It's where God is building. It's where God is changing. Let me tell you something-- [APPLAUSE] The Church of Jesus
Christ is worth the risk of going over the
falls in the impact zone. And so if your ego
has been bruised, if you've been hurt, if
bad things have happened, let me tell you something--
paddle back out. The revelation alone
is worth the risk. It's worth any hard
thing-- any bad thing. Paddle back out
and be the change you want to see in the Church. And lead the change you
want to see in the Church with your example, with your
integrity, with your prayers. We need you. When you're in the
channel seeing just your little piece
of God, that all you have, and we
don't get to have it. We desperately need the piece
of God that He's shown to you. And I desperately want to give
you the peace He's shown to me. And so we all together
can see that power. That's really the
essence of my message. I could shut it down right here. I think we've had enough
of a time together. But there's a couple more
things in the passage that He mentions that
are worth noticing, and the first is protection. Protection-- we don't
just get revelation. There's protection in it. Because there's landmines
in this world, aren't there? Yeah. Oh, you think you're
safe in the channel? You're not safe in the channel. There's rip currents to take
you out to sea before you know what's even happening. And all of a sudden, you're
trying to paddle back, and you're halfway to Honolulu. It is a dangerous
thing in this world. And so I'm not going
to be in the Church. The Church is full
of hypocrites. And so you're out
there in the world. What happens? Well, Peter says there's lust
warring against your soul. So wow-- a real tickle
the back of my throat. I don't know if you can
tell that's happening, but it's horrible. [LAUGHTER] I'm going to get
a drink of water. [COUGHS] I thought I could
preach right through it. Usually I can power
on-- it goes away. But it just got worse. [LAUGHTER] So-- [CLEARS THROAT]
I think that did it. All right. So he said there's lust
warring against your soul. I like how The Message
translation puts it. He says, "Friends, this
world is not your home, so don't make
yourselves cozy in it. Don't indulge your ego at
the expense of your soul." So we abstain from the church,
thinking we know better-- we can do better. But we're susceptible outside
of the protection of community as well. Because when we are lone rangers
doing our solitary island thing, what we don't have is
the beauty of accountability. What we don't have
is the necessity of difficult conversations. And a lot of you have, at
various points in your life, resisted community. Maybe some of you
watching on the podcast, you've resisted being
a part of the church, because of a difficult
conversation. Because someone, in
love, spoke to you things that you didn't want to
hear, but you needed to hear, and so you resisted by taking
your ball and going home. And really, you have a
rebellious spirit within you that doesn't want to
submit to authority. That's only going to hold
you back in every area-- in work, in ministry,
in your family-- if you don't come
under that authority-- if you can't humble yourself. Pride only causes
God to oppose you. Grace always comes to those
who have a humble heart. And you have to have a
humble heart willing to hear difficult things-- willing to hear and
receive the correction that comes from people in
your life who you've put into place to
tie you to the mast and to keep you from hearing
the siren song of this world. People who have beeswax in their
ear, to use Homer's language, and they're not in
the fray at your job. They're not in the
fray in your marriage. They're not in the fray
in your parenting dynamic. So they actually can speak into
it and say objectively to you, you're not living like
heaven's you're home. You're living here like this
world is all that matters. You're living carnally. You're being rude. You're being belligerent. You're being an ogre. You're being mean. And so you can at that point
puff up, bow up, and say, I don't have to hear this. And you know what? You can go onto your next
three churches you'll leave, and you'll go onto
your next three jobs where the boss is a jerk. You'll go on of your
next three marriages, where it's always their fault. Or you can yield. You can humble yourself. You can receive correction. You can let God fix the parts
in your heart that are actually broken, that are
actually crooked, and you can begin
to live like God is actually the
Lord of your life and the Lord of your
relationships and-- [APPLAUSE] --and receive the benefit
of a teachable spirit. And that protection
kicks in when we respond to those in our
Fresh Life group who see us. When we don't posture and
put up a religious veneer of, everything's good,
but we actually say, I'm really having
a hard time here. I really feel scared here. Who in your life can you call? Who in your life is
going to call you? Who in your life do you know
is going to check up you? That's the beauty of leadership. That's the beauty of being on
a team where someone says, hey, you're five minutes late. Everyone's here, but you rolled
in like you own the place. It's the beauty-- you're
like, I'm a business owner. I-- but that's the beauty
of exhibiting tenderness, of exhibiting teachability,
of exhibiting correct-- that's why the Bible
says, it's not profitable for you to resist those
who God's placed over you. That you don't have
that tender heart that wants to hear-- that craves
people's eyes on your life. Because let me just
tell you something. The parts of this world that
are the most dangerous to you are also invisible to you. That's the nature
of self-deception. We're blind to our
own blind spots. We need coverage. We need to embrace
and bear down on, and even if they suck,
difficult conversations that come within the house. That's what it means to
be a part of a family, is to embrace difficult
conversations. So protection--
is this all right? Is this helping anybody? Yes. Yeah. All right. There's a third. The third is mission. We have revelation, protection--
we stay on track with mission. We're constantly spurred
on, to use our language from our text last week--
spurred on towards mission. In fact, Peter puts it this way. This is The Passion Translation. This is Verse 12. "Live honorable lives as
you mix with unbelievers." Now, we can stop right there and
I could ask you this question. Does anybody come to your mind? And if you're like, nope. I am only surrounded
by Christians. You're doing it wrong. Yeah. You're doing it wrong. You are. It's so easy. The longer you're in
it, to make the Church into a pseudo-heaven,
where you're only ever surrounded by Christians. You're only ever eating
dinner and mixing with people who are like you. You need to keep mixing
with unbelievers. And as you do, live an
honorable life in the workplace. The goal isn't for us to
pretend we're already in heaven. The goal is for us
to reach other people so they can go to heaven. Yes. That's right. Mix with unbelievers--
dinner with unbelievers. Love and fellowship
and all of that happening within the
Church so that we can encourage each other
to mix with unbelievers. Listen. "Even though they accuse
you of being evildoers." That'll happen. [SIGHS] [LAUGHTER] "For they will see
your beautiful works and have a reason to glorify
God in the day he visits us." It's the ability
to live beautifully and graciously, even when
we're being accused vehemently. And to do so in a way that
can cause people over time to be worn down and
see there's something about the way you live that I
like, even if in this season, I've been adversarial
against you. And we get to keep encouraging
each other on towards mission, on towards mission-- listen. You and I are to live our entire
lives as a mission for Jesus. That's what it means to live
with Jesus as your King. It's not, oh, I go to church
on Sunday sometimes, right? It's, I live my enti-- Do you view your workplace,
do you view everything in your life, every
part of leisure, as I'm living as a
mission for King Jesus? And I have a unique
assignment that I'm going to answer how I did when
I stand before Him to be judged. That's the beauty of church. We live out there in the world. It's intoxicating
and everything. You start to hear the song. But then we come back in here. It's like, no. Mission for Jesus. That's the beauty
of our gatherings. Let's go back out there and
live on mission for King Jesus. And then fourth and
finally, there's transformation that happens. Transformation-- what does
that transformation look like? Well, it looks like to the
end that one day you wake up and you look at yourself
and you go, oh, my gosh. I'm a chosen generation. I'm a royal priesthood. I'm a holy nation. I'm His own special people. When did that even happen? While you were
living as mission. While were availing
yourself to protection. While we were
constantly being changed by the glory of the revelation. We look up one day
and we're just watch-- we're watching things
in our life change. We're watching things
in our lives transform. And that kind of transformation
cannot happen in isolation. What am I trying
to get you to see? I'm trying to get you to see
that you can't become yourself by yourself. The version of yourself
that you're meant to be, the version of yourself that
God knows that you can be, the version of yourself
deep down inside that He wants to call out-- the
king inside the boy, the queen inside the girl, the
warrior inside the fool. I'm telling you, you can't
get to that version of you by yourself. It takes all of us to rub
up against each other. That's the beauty
of the impact zone. Yeah, I know. It's sometimes really horrible. You go over the falls. You get betrayed. You get let down. I let you down. I've done it, probably. And we're going to
do it to each other. But part of that grinding is
the chance for transformation. Part of that is what the Bible
describes as "iron sharpens iron," which looks
so great on a shirt, but feels so horrible
when it's happening. [LAUGHTER] Right? Oh, I love iron sharpening iron. Yeah. That feels scrape-y-- [LAUGHTER] --and stuff. But that's how
we're transformed. That's how we become like Jesus. And we need each
other to get there. One of the definitions
for the word "home," which the Church should
feel like to you, is "a place where
something flourishes." Home-- "a place where
something flourishes." That's what David
had in mind when he said, "Those who are planted
in the house of the Lord will flourish in the
courts of our God." When we actually
treat this as home, live planted in the
house of God as our home, we put down deep roots in
the house of God as our home, we look up one day and we've
been transformed by each other, by the Spirit, by
God working in us. So let's live
here, planted here, and let's see God do
great things from here. Jesus's name? Yes. Yeah. Amen. I want to end with two
stories, and these two stories have a consistent theme. And the theme is sacrifice,
and the theme is home. The first story comes
from Luke, Chapter 15, and it's one of the most
famous stories in the Bible. The story the prodigal
son who went out to this world looking for
the things of the world to satisfy the ache
inside of his soul. And you know that story,
because we've lived it and we've seen it 1,000 times. And the drugs didn't
satisfy, and the prostitutes didn't satisfy, and the
parties didn't satisfy, and the money didn't
satisfy, and there came a day when he was
bankrupt on the inside and on the outside. Penniless,
friendless, destitute, and forlorn-- the Bible says he
made the decision to go home. And the Bible says, in that
moment he came to himself. Coming to his father's
home was coming to himself. Why? Because when you're
alienated from God, you're always
alienated from you. And you will never be the
kind of version of you you're meant to become apart
from God's family-- apart from God's house, even with
the older brother jeering, even with the family dynamics. I love that even in
that story, he doesn't put rose-colored glasses. Here's the greatest salvation
ever-- the greatest rescue story ever in history. And there's an older brother
going, he doesn't deserve it. It's like, what? It's home. Yeah. So why would we think our church
dynamic would be any different? Right. Yeah, the older
brother pops up again. We've got to play whack-a-mole
with that religious spirit every day. Welcome to pastoral ministry. So that pops up all the time. But that doesn't mean
we don't go home. That doesn't mean
it's not worth home. That doesn't mean it's not
worth the idea of home. If we want to come to ourselves,
we've got to come home. That's what the
prodigal son teaches us. But I also want to honor
a legend of surfing. Who, if he was alive this
weekend, would be 73 years old, and that's Eddie Aikau. Eddie Aikau, a prolific surfer
from Hawaii, born in Maui, but really made a
name for himself surfing on Oahu's North Shore. And he was the first
lifeguard of Waimea Bay. The first lifeguard ever
hired to lifeguard-- to save lives at Waimea Bay. And let me show you a photo. This is from the Eddie
Aikau Invitational Surfing Contest that happens at
Waimea Bay every year. That's a 30-some-foot
tall face of a wave that they measure from the back. From the front, it's actually
more like 60, it can get to. Breaking in water at times
that can pulverize people-- break their backs. People drown in
there all the time. First lifeguard-- he
paddled out into that wave and saved 500 lives in his life. He would be alive
today at 73, had he not died in a re-creation of a
canoeing expedition to Tahiti, where they were trying
to do the Moana thing and go back to the
islands that they had island hopped on originally. He was participating
in that and sadly, lost his life trying to
save the lives of those who were taking on water. So he jumped on
a surfboard to go to help, trying to get to
Lanai, and was never found by rescuers. But this spirit and this idea
of Eddie's sacrificial life he lived, inspired in the
surfing culture of Hawaii, and really spread
everywhere to these shirts that you see you'll
see sometimes in places like Panama City Beach or
Newport Beach or Malibu, or even all over the world-- "Eddie would go." You might see that. "Eddie would go." You could buy a
Quicksilver shirt. "Eddie would go." And it's become this
idea of dropping on that sick, gnar wave, brah. Right? This lifestyle of risk. Like, take that wave. Eddie would go. But what it actually
meant when it began was, save somebody else,
even if it hurts you. That's the spirit
of Eddie Aikau. It's, no matter what it costs
you, if someone's in danger, put yourself in danger to
be willing to save them out of danger. He did that 500 times at one of
the most gnarly waves-- vicious breaks in the world. And 500 people lived
because of his risk. And I love that story,
"Eddie would go," because I see it in it Jesus. Jesus did go. Jesus looked at this
world, sick with sin, in the impact zone of death,
and He paddled out to save us. And He died so that we can live. And in His Spirit,
we are called to live on mission in this
world, fighting so that anybody
far from God could be filled with life and Christ. And they would have that
chance because of them rubbing shoulders
with us, that we would live on mission for our King. Eddie would go. Jesus did go. The question is, will you?
