Philip And The Eunuch | Ps Shane Willard | Life Church SC

uh the probably second biggest question i get asked around the world is what what's the church gonna look like after all this surely we're not gonna waste uh this opportunity right what what are we gonna look like and i have one answer to that and i can tell you with a lot of confidence that if you're gonna be a part of what god is doing with the church going forward you're going to have to get on board with what i'm talking about today okay and now you could always be a part and be like a jerk and disgruntled i'm talking about if you're going to be a part and like it if you're going to be a part and really enjoy it i can tell you leaders at the highest levels are asking starting to ask me to start articulating these sorts of things and so i want you to give me i don't know 35 40 minutes and i want to talk about what kind of church and for our purposes today what kind of church life church is is going to build and what kind of church we are becoming what kind of church we um endeavor to be so so so before i get to the scripture i want to tell you a true story um that will serve as our primary image uh for the whole uh day i'm an american americans love australian culture we love it we love it we love it we are enamored by it largely because of a guy named crocodile dundee love that guy right americans have never heard of pavlova ever so if you go to america and you open a pavlova shop you will go broke but if you simply call it the great aussie pie you you'll make you'll you'll make millions just oh australia wow and anytime anytime australians come to americans come to australia for the first time they always want to see the outback the reason is crocodile dundee lives there i try to tell them you don't want to see the outback there's nothing there look fly to mount isaac drive five minutes out of town that is it for 3 000 miles but they don't listen right so they come and they see the outback and americans can't get their head around the sheer size of nothingness we don't really have that i'm talking about miles of nothingness the size of properties bill gates recently became the largest private property owner in american history bought himself a million acres right and yeah and americans like a million acres for yourself i'm unbelievable unbelievable australians are like backyard right right my my pastor is an old cattleman he um he's 84 now but he he's an old cattleman and it the cattle property that that he ran when he was a young adult was 70 miles long by 30 miles wide right that was their proper well to an american that's a that's the state of connecticut we've never heard of anything like that and so the the american tourist couldn't get his head around one simple question how do you keep the cows from running away you can't you can't fence it up you can't put a fence around 70 miles it costs to maybe take a congressional act to build your wall right you can't get a vat right and so the the american tourist asked the australian farmer he said how do you keep the cows from running away the australian farmer said i don't get what you mean he said well there's not enough fences to keep the cows in line like you can't surely they're wandering off and he says we can't fence up the thingies and what you do is you have a surveyor come in and dig strategic wells at specific parts of your field and you'll create a predictable water source and as soon as you create that predictable water source the cows learn where the water is and they'll never venture too far from that water they'll die and the australian farmer said to the american tourist might night if you got the right wells you don't need all those fences which leads me to jesus so jesus comes onto the scene in the most fence-based paradigm of ministry maybe ever 613 rules who's in who's out who's right who's wrong who's clean who's unclean jesus changed the whole thing to two fence posts love god and treat others as you would want to be treated do not be people obsessing about one verse in the bible be people obsessing on how to fulfill scripture by doing unto others as you would have been doing to you and it worked like we we could talk for hours about jesus's impact over 2000 years i'm just talking about in the first 10 years to come onto the scene and change the entire paradigm from 613 fences to two fence posts is a massive massive effort which leads me to this observation about what christianity is and what christianity is not christianity is not a group of people believing something so that they can go to heaven when they die christianity is a group of people who are intentionally and authentically seeking to see the world how jesus saw the world to see god how jesus saw god and this and apply scripture how jesus applied scripture and when we do that that means that jesus is not a belief system like people say oh we just believe in jesus so demons believe in jesus to be a group of people believing in jesus just qualifies you to be a whole room of demons that doesn't make any sense like jesus jesus is not someone to believe in jesus is somebody to fundamentally shape how we see all things and that's two different things which leads me to the book of acts the book of acts was a group of people who took him serious and they endeavored to see the world how jesus saw the world see god how jesus saw god and apply scripture how jesus white scripture here's the entire first nine chapters of the book of acts in 20 seconds ready a group of people had an amazing encounter with the holy spirit and then they started doing amazing things and then they got persecuted for doing the amazing things because it didn't fit within the fences and then they overcame that and then they did more amazing things and they got persecuted for doing the amazing things and then they overcame that and then they did more amazing things and they got persecuted for doing the amazing things and then they overcame that and then their friend stephen gets murdered and once your best friend gets murdered even the most ardent followers of jesus were like we're taking our show on the road to y'all chill out right and they end up at a place called samaria namely one of the disciples a guy named philip he's doing amazing things and people are trying to purchase the abilities they're seeing and and then there's this odd story that's just put right in the middle of acts chapter 8. bible study 101 is always read the bible in context right here's the problem what if there's no context this story has nothing to do with anything before and nothing to do with anything after it it's a story luke obviously had in his back pocket and he was like this has got to go in there i don't know where so here we go uh because it's just too important to read over so i want to read this story and i want to ask what happened it's going to take me about so if you have less anxiety right if you know what's coming here's what's coming about a 14-minute exegesis of what happened and then we're gonna spend the rest of time examining what's happening in us right now because of what happened all right so this is acts chapter eight verse 26 it's a strange story about philip and a nameless man just simply called the ethiopian eunuch right this is acts chapter 8 verse 26. you could bring that up for us so we could all see it together now an angel lord said to philip rise and go to the south to the road that goes down to jerusalem to gaza this is a desert place so he rose and he went and there was an ethiopian a eunuch a court official of candace queen of the ethiopians who was in charge of her treasure he had come to jerusalem to worship and was returning seated on his chariot and he was reading the prophet isaiah let's just stop right there can we all admit this is a weird story you have an ethiopian who rode a horse from ethiopia to jerusalem while clutching the scroll of a prophet he can't possibly understand that's weird just according to google maps ethiopia to jerusalem is 3 853 kilometers to put an australian number on that that's riding a horse from melbourne to mount isa turning right and going to townsville [Laughter] that's a long way so this guy rides a horse for 3 853 kilometers which probably explains why he is a eunuch [Laughter] that's weird you mean to tell me in 3 853 kilometers there wasn't one other place to stop to worship mount sinai's halfway it's pretty holy place you've got to come all the way jerusalem and you're clutching the scroll of isaiah why a prophet who's calling out corrupt systems of political power and how they abuse their power to hold down the poor and the afflicted and urging people to put their weapons and turn them into plowshares and feed people that guy why is that guy interesting to an ethiopian eunuch especially since he can't speak the language story's strange then it gets stranger check this out keep going so so the spirit of the lord said to philip well go and join him on his chariot you know why not it's a philip random and heard him reading isaiah the prophet and asked do you even understand what you're reading and the eunuch really owns up to it he's like well no how can i unless someone guides me and he invited philip to come and sit with him now the past that he was reading was this like a sheep he was led to slaughter like a lamb before his sheer silence so he opens not his mouth uh in his humiliation justice would deny them who can describe his generation for his life was taken away from the earth uh so the eunuch says to philip who's this guy talking about is he talking about himself or somebody else like his understanding is so elemental he's not even sure if isaiah is writing his own biography like like what he does understand is is he's describing a god that does not exist above the story rather a god that chooses to insist in the chaos of the broken story in order to make a better narrative like that is compelling um and so then then philip opened his mouth and beginning with that scripture he told him the good news about jesus and as they were going along the road they came to some water and here comes the critical part of the story the eunuch said well look um here's some water is there anything preventing me from being baptized a lot of you taking notes i can see that that's the key phrase a ethiopian eunuch wants to join what god is doing in jesus and he's wondering he's talking to a jesus expert philip is the jesus expert in the story and he's wondering okay i really like to be a part of this can you think of a reason why i can't and there's all this tension now because philip can think of a reason this guy can't and we're going to talk about that in just a second and he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down the water and philip and the eunuch and he baptized him and so when he came up out of the water the spirit of the lord carried philip away and the eunuch saw him no more but he went on his way rejoicing that's a strange story and i have questions and if i have questions that means you have questions so i'm going to let you in on the questions i ask and they might be the same questions you asked like next slide like is there too much information in this passage like i think there's i think there's too much information don't you like do we really need to know this guy's a eunuch okay that next slide for me for the questions like is there too much information in the passage like five times it says hey this guy's a eunuch if i haven't mentioned this yet he's a eunuch by the way in case you didn't know he's a you five times if you're the eunuch do you want the whole world knowing you're a eunuch i could picture the eunuch you know confronting peter i mean sorry confronting luke right now going hey put the whole you put it in the bible i'm a eunuch you know willard can't read over that just let it go they're all going to know me eunuch right why do we need to know why do we need to know this guy's missing part of his anatomy why is that so important and why is he choosing to worship in jerusalem that's strange cyanide was halfway why is he clutching the scroll of the prophet isaiah that's odd doesn't speak the language why is he finding isaiah even remotely interesting and and next one like is there any reason he can't be baptized like can you think of a reason why i can't be baptized and here's the thing there was there was this verse in deuteronomy that forbidden foreigners and forbidden eunuchs and philip has a choice do i want to be right about one verse or do i want to fulfill scripture by doing unto others as i would have them do unto you now where did people have learned that jesus how jesus saw the world how jesus saw god how jesus applied scripture was to fulfill it not be right about it because what this scripture is going to force us to wrestle with today is this are we going to be a fence-based church or a well-based church are we going to be a fence-based place or a well-based place is there any reason i can't be baptized yeah let me show it to you it's in the bible this is deuteronomy 23 verse 1. no one who's been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter into the assembly of the lord god doesn't accept eunuchs it's in the bible and no one born of a forbidden marriage or any of their descendants man in the assembly lord not even 10 generations from now i was born in 1976 and in my lifetime i heard a youth pastor use that verse to encourage teenagers to avoid premarital relationships the idea was is that if you mess up and get them pregnant the kid will never be welcome in heaven that's homer simpson logic that's one two those people left the church and then the church said see they rejected jesus no they did not reject jesus they rejected the image of jesus presented to them and some jesus should be rejected right oh and while moses is on a roll he gives more fences in the first three verses of deuteronomy 23 than in jesus whole ministry no eunuchs nobody born from a forbidden union keep going this next one and and and no and no moabite or ammonite or any of their descendants can enter the assembly lord not even ten generations from now okay so if you're paying attention here are the fences no eunuchs nobody born out of a particular union and no moabites and no ammonites lots of fences right and if you jesus himself was confrontational to this if you check his genealogy he's 128th moabite and there were certain questions regarding the situation around his birth right right so so can you see where a foreigner eunuch asking a jesus expert can you think of any reason why i can't be a part of what god is doing in jesus that there was a reason and philip has to make a choice do i want to be right about deuteronomy 23 verse 1 or do i want to do something more profound and fulfill scripture by doing unto others as i would have them do unto me because if you don't hear nut notes i say hear me say this the bible is not a static record of god the bible is a dynamic progressive moving revelation of god leading to the final revelation of god the risen christ in other words you cannot take one verse and read it statically you have to see where the story goes and how does it lead to the risen christ which leads to this question why isaiah a foreigner eunuch interested in isaiah doesn't make any sense why well on the same scroll that they were reading from in isaiah 56 we read this check this out next slide let no foreigner who's bound to the lord say the lord will exclude me from his people and let no eunuch complain i'm only a dry tree for this is what the lord says to the eunuchs who keep my sabbath who choose what pleases me hold fast my covenant to them i'll give within my temple and its walls a name that in a memorial named better than the sons and daughters in other words i know moses said no eunuchs and no foreigners but isaiah is like upon further review god's nicer than you think and here's the thing if a foreigner eunuch wants in on what god is doing god's not going to exclude those people because god loves people more than the rules right and i'll give them an everlasting name that will endure forever and the foreigners who bind themselves to the lord to minister lord love the name of the lord be of service all keep the sabbath about desecrating it who confess to my covenant in other words if they want it right keep going these i'll bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer their burnt offerings and sacrifices will in fact be accepted on my altar from my house will be called a house of prayer for all all all what about moabites all yeah cyanides all amalekites all all nations the sovereign lord declares he who gathers the exiles of israel i will still gather others to them besides those already gathered so if you're following the logic here philip has a choice can you think of a reason i can't be a part yeah i can and i have a choice do i want to be right about deuteronomy 23 or do i want to be right about isaiah 56 or do i want to do something more profound than being right about either one of them and fulfill scripture by doing unto others as you would ever do unto you why because that's how jesus applied scripture right i mean the the the flow of thought is deuteronomy 23 no eunuchs ever isaiah 56 the ones that want it absolutely matthew 19 jesus said some people are born eunuchs because of god if you can hear it hear it and then by acts 8 there's a rubber meets the road critical cultural situation where a jesus expert is setting the tone for how the church of jesus christ will act with foreigner unix now if you're a linear learner instead of a narrative learner you're already a little bit lost so so i did this for you next slide in this story there are two there are two characters there's an ethiopian eunuch he's a god fearer the problem is he would have been disqualified by one rule there is a verse that disqualifies this man you also have philip who is a jesus expert one of the original 12 from a devoutly orthodox village called beseda he would have lived by all 613 fences until he met jesus and jesus taught him a different way to think about the world a different way to think about god and different way to apply scripture to fulfill it instead of being right about the one verse and how did jesus teach his followers to judge the merit of something by its fruit correct next slide today two-thirds of ethiopia identify us as christ followers ethiopian christians are indigenous people don't tend to move there today the church in ethiopia traces their origins back to this one eunuch in other words you never know the far-reaching effects of being brave enough to fulfill scripture instead play it out the other way can you think of a reason i can't be baptized yes unfortunately deuteronomy 23 verse 1 forbid you please go home we'd be spending 10 billion dollars trying to evangelize them today when that 10 billion dollars is better spent trying to feed them why because two-thirds of them are already christians why because philip was brave enough to fulfill scripture instead of being right there are 613 ins and outs in the in the old testament you will find one to disqualify every single one of us that is not the question the question is what are we going to do to fulfill scripture not just be right about one verse we can find and by the way this is what the whole book of acts is about it's about a group of people who are constantly surprised by how generous god is with people who want it like remember there's this one time it says that uh the spirit of god filled all the gentiles and it surprised everybody and even the followers of jesus were like peter what's up man god doesn't fill gentiles and remember peter is like i know i know that's what i was taught my whole life too but then i saw him do it and who am i to argue here's the thing if you're going to be a part of what's going to happen at life church going forward and be happy about it we're going to have to be a well-based place in every offense-based place now again what does that even mean if you know me you know i hate platitudes right a platitude is when you say something obvious but you have no language to define it right so here's a good platitude hey folks we need to be walking in the spirit what's that mean it means we walk in the spirit okay right so so yeah i hate it i hate that i hate when people do that right so if i was to say we need to be a well-based place never a fence-based place right that's obvious no one in here is going to go no we need to make it harder right the problem is is when we don't have language for what that looks like it becomes problematic so let's put some language around what it means to be a well-based place and not a fence-based place let's say this way next slide jesus never asks are you worthy jesus seems to ask are you thirsty and those are two different things let's keep with our primary image here a fence-based place obsesses on who is worthy a well-based place obsesses on who is thirsty the way jesus saw god is so moving here's here's the way he saw god and i'm trying my best to see it this way for myself jesus had a profound trust in god that if someone wants it god can do all the convicting and all the changing in their life without us having to carry the pressure of them right how many times in jesus's life do you hear him say let him who has ears let him hear in other words if the father hasn't prepared you for this it's not my place remember there's this one time it says jesus was preaching to 5 000 people which is obviously a metaphor for a whole lot of people right no one was going one dude right right and so and it says it says that by the end of the sermon everybody walked out every 100 rejection of what he said it must have been a terrible sermon right jesus is irritated and he turns to his disciples and he's like are you going to leave too and the disciples are like no no we're not um we're with you but we don't want to be johnny raincloud here but they didn't buy what you were selling right and jesus says i know i know but if the father hasn't prepared their heart to hear it who am i to try to convince them that's jesus christ saying that now if that way of seeing god is good enough for him i should probably be less manipulative of people to try to get the result i'm looking for and more paying attention what is god doing in front of me and then cooperating with that our job as a church is to celebrate and facilitate everybody's next yes the only question is do they want it and if they want it we can trust god to do all the convicting and all the developing and all the changing our only job is to facilitate and celebrate whatever their next yes is a fence-based place that says so who is worthy a well-based person who is thirsty let's say it another way a fence-based place obsesses on sending less a well-based place obsesses on loving more and by loving more will automatically sin less let's say this way a fence-based place obsesses on everything has to be fixed this is what it sounds like bring your broken story to us and we will exude our mastery of good and evil into your broken story and fix it all and after it's fixed you can be a part of what we're doing what oh who would want that much pressure oh a well-based place says actually what we're going to do is we're going to create a shame-free environment where people can come with their broken story open and honest and then we're going to trust god to do all the convicting and all the changing it's it's it's let's say it this way a fence-based place that says so who is worthy a well-based place that says no who is thirsty a fence-based place obsesses on sending less a well-based place on loving more a fence place place obsesses on everything has to be fixed a well-based place on nothing has to be hidden it seems to me the enemy of where the church is going to go is not sin it's a lack of thirst it's when we lose our desires when we lose our want to it's when we lose our passion let's let's put some language on that because if i was to say hey we need to be a thirsty church no one's going to go no we need to be more apathetic right but we need but we need language around this all right so let's take this way next slide so let's say a lack of thirst equals a lack of teachability like the root word for disciple in hebrew and greek is one who is teachable a student that this is the thought that if i hadn't thought of it it can't possibly be right what are you talking about like the the whoever the smartest person in the room is we haven't scratched even one one thousandth of one percent of what god we have an enormous eternity of eternal exploration it's a t let's say it in the positive a thirsty culture is a teachable culture a thirsty culture is a humble culture what does that mean it means that we submit our liberty to the higher ethic of love preferring the weaker person whether it's weaker in body whether it's weaker in materials or whether it's weaker in conscience that the way jesus saw the world the way jesus saw god the way jesus applied scripture is people who are the most free should always prefer the most vulnerable it's a humble culture it's it's a responsible culture in in the genesis story even before sin entered the world people got their meaning by taking responsibility for their world and think about the story when sin and there's the story what's the first thing we do scapegoat blame let's state it in a positive a thirsty culture is a teachable culture it's a humble culture it's a responsible culture i would say it one other way a a a a teachable culture is is um passionate a lack of thirst is when we get ambivalent like this is this is what it this is the problem with the fence based model a fence based model obsesses with conversion right it says okay you're currently not in our field but if you jump over that fence and cross the line by praying a magic prayer that we made up a 100 years ago or so you can now if you just pray that prayer what you can do is you can go from not in our field to our field right and look i celebrate that if you're not a follower of jesus i want you to become a follower of jesus but a fence-based model stops so somebody converts and they go now what and you go well welcome what are we doing well we're sort of sitting on our butt waiting to go to heaven when we die well that's boring unless you're 107. like if you're 107 you can wait to go to heaven when you die it's coming quickly but if you're not if you're not 107 that means you woke up today with infinite possibility let's if i could use an orange as an example a fence based place says you're not an orange please do something and become an orange right and look yeah yeah but but a well-based place goes okay now that you're in orange we want to hook you to the water source so you could be the best orange you could be like what if you're a ripe orange or sour orange what you got a little bit of mold on your skin like what what are we we are here to to to facilitate and celebrate everybody's next yes because we trust god to do all the convicting and all the changing let's let's say this way a teacher a thirsty culture is a teachable culture a humble culture a responsible culture and a culture passionate about the infinite possibilities for our world now you could call that anything for our purposes today we'll call it church but if you have a community of people who are not just believing in jesus but seeing the world seeing god and applying scripture how jesus saw the world god and applied scripture in other words we're endeavoring to do unto others as we would have been doing to us not be right about some verse we could find and we've created a teachable humble responsible and passionate culture that whatever that is it's it's not just necessary it's essential for impacting our communities this is what we're trying to build we're trying to build a well-based place what does that mean it means we obsess on who is thirsty instead of who is worthy it means we obsess on loving more not sending less it means we obsess on nothing has to be hidden instead of everything has to be fixed it means we're teachable humble responsible and passionate about the infinite possibilities for our world maybe we need to put some more language around this next slide let's see where this goes the overuse of fences is not necessary if there's a well-stocked well there were 613 fences in the old testament jesus had two fence posts by acts 15 they had dumbed it down to four food sacrificed to idols blood meat of strangled animals and sexual harassment think about that in 10 years they move from 6 13 to 4 with the goal of getting to two that is a massive massive move in the right direction let's say this way next slide here's some questions i want us to wrestle with are we gravitating to the center regardless of the fence because fences don't matter as much if we're going to the center anyway like okay i don't know if i'm getting that point across so let me um followers of jesus right not just people who believe in jesus people trying to see the world see god see and apply scripture jesus did it right do you really need the bible to tell you don't kill somebody okay so here's right so the bible is very clear about this don't kill each other right and that's a good one that is really like society needs that right and i would bet that no one in here killed anybody this week well i don't know your whole life stories i'm gonna go with this week right so i would bet no one in here killed anybody this week i would also bet that the reason you didn't kill is not because the bible says don't kill it's because you're not a killer right i would also bet here's another good one don't take each other's things but but if you still need the bible to tell you not to steal you i think you've missed the whole point right if you still need if you still need that one bible verse to convince you not to kill i would say you've missed the whole point right there's a more profound reason not to do those things like oh here's a good one don't sleep with each other's spouses it's a good one right because if you start wife swapping things start breaking down and i and and i would bet that no one in here right now is currently sleeping with someone else's spouse right now if right now if your heart's starting to beat fast you're like oh god don't go prophetic oh no [Music] if that's if that's you change your life right just and don't end don't tell us all about it don't drag us into your mess just stop it right but but i i i would bet i would bet that no one in here is currently sleeping with someone else's spouse and i would also bet that the reason is not because there's a bible verse it's because you don't want to bring darkness and despair on people you love and right like maybe okay so if you don't know what i'm saying here what you're going to do um after this is over i want you to take your spouse to lunch or wherever i want you to hold him by the hand and i want you to say listen sweetie i just want you to understand i love you so much there's no words i i don't have love is not big enough i i do not have the right word to express how much i love you but the only reason that i'm not sleeping with everybody else is unfortunately the bible forbids it see how your afternoon goes right this is why this is why i get nauseated when somebody asks a christian why do you live like that and they go well the bible says that that you need you need a fence to go towards the center anyway see let's say another way a fence-based place obsesses with distance a well-based place obsesses with direction so fence-based place asks questions like this how far are you from the center how far are you from god right well-based place doesn't ask that a well-based place says are their shoulders facing the center direction and then we can facilitate and celebrate everybody's necks yes as long as the shoulders are heading the right way let's see if i illustrate this it's a true story and i want you to pay very close attention to your heart your spirit when i tell you a story pay attention to how you respond when i tell you this story okay um so this is a it's a true story i was i was asked to do a team night uh for a very very very very very big church uh to be it was a tuesday night meeting to be a part of this meeting you had to be on team somewhere there was 400 people all right and they were volunteers and all this and my job was to like hey you know um and so they had this awesome part of so good they had a part of the night called minute to win it where anybody in the whole room could run up be handed a microphone and tell their god story about something they saw god do because where they were serving um but they had to do it in less than 60 seconds so as soon as they grabbed the mic there was a guy in charge with the stopwatch and if it beat they muted the mic and everybody got into it because it made people talk fast it made people not ramble it's brilliant brilliant brilliant everybody's celebrating and cheering and going on well i have to go next well the guy that went last he gets up and says this hello everybody i'm an atheist and i thought i could tell you're serious i was like maybe you're not paying attention you're sort of ruining a party here right he said i'm an atheist he said but i'm a lonely atheist and a friend of mine told me that you didn't care whether i was an atheist or not to let me be a part of your thing and so i came up and tried and sure enough you're a group of people that could care less whether i believe in god or not to let me be a part of your thing he said by the second week somebody asked me to be a a door greeter and i said yes he said my job is to stand there on sunday and be nice to people show people where the bathroom is things like this he said you are a church with an atheist door greeter and i thought this is the best and he said if my story is this because of your kindness i'm going to step back tonight and reconsider god might be real see see see pay attention to that kind of stuff why because a fence space place can't do that a fence-based place would be but does he believe what we believe does he has he checked our doctrine like you do realize that anybody who checks the what you believe page before they visit for those are not the people you're like like right it's it's they the the offense-based place would be asking all the wrong questions like does he believe what we believe has he done this has he done this ritual has he done this a well-based place is like i don't know but i know his shoulders are facing the center and we're here to facilitate and celebrate that next yes right when an atheist is considering god might be real that's a yes that we should be able to celebrate and not push him any further than what god is obviously right let's say this way an old test next slide in old testament communities uh the whole village was built around the well what if we built wells instead of fences and defined our churches not by the rules but by whether people want it it's not are you worthy is are you thirsty it's not said unless it's loving more it's not everything has to be fixed nothing has to be hidden it's not distance it's direction why because we're teachable humble responsible and passionate about the infinite possibilities for our world and we are here to facilitate and celebrate everybody's next yes the only question is do you want it do you want it because wells produce certain things let's say this way next slide um jesus was a fence destroyer and a well inviter and he taught his disciples how to see it that way and so philip ignores all the fences and just keeps talking about the well can you think of a reason i can't be baptized yes but we don't do that in jesus movements we actually only ask do you want it not are you worth it jesus people do not obsess with worth they obsess with want which is a whole nother thing let's see this way next slide we don't need any fence that doesn't lead to the will and if fences make it harder to get to the well they miss the point fences operate properly carrying people to the life source not becoming hurdles for people to jump over it which leads me to this there's this guy named jesus and every year to this day jews everywhere choose to do something that's quite strange they choose to live outside in tents for seven days that's a little odd right like if i said hey got an idea just live outside the tent for seven days every year why to get closer to god right like what would your question be why is the hilton not open seriously right but they do it here's why they do it this will be a caricature but this is why they do it it's profound they do it because their ancestors were homeless refugee slaves in the wilderness so here's what they do they remind themselves with this confection my father was a wandering aramian and if god had not interjected himself into our story we would still be homeless refugee slaves but because god has interjected himself in our story we are no longer homeless refugee slaves here's the thing if we ever lose sight of where we be had god not been in our story we'll lose sight of our responsibility to their story and so every year on on the on the seventh day they have a uh i don't know closing ceremony and in jerusalem they do it where you would think at the temple so jesus is in that context that jesus stands on the steps of the most fence-based paradigm ministry maybe ever and he says perhaps his most revolutionary thought this is john chapter 7. check this out next life on the last the greatest day of the feast jesus stood and said the loud voice let anyone who's thirsty come to me and drink whoever believes in me as the scripture said rivers of living water will flow from within them of this he was speaking of the spirit in other words you know that full presence of god that you've been taught your whole life is relegated to an inner room inside another in a room inside another thing in this building behind me and it's only available to certain few people and then only certain times a year you know that we're changing the entire rule and the full presence of god is now available to everybody what's the question what must i do to get that the answer was want it [Music] do you want it if you want it you can have it you imagine if i'm going to add two words to that okay and i'll admit i'm adding it but pay attention to your heart uh let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink anyone who believes in me as a scripture said rivers of living water will flow from within them of this he was speaking of spirit any questions can you imagine that audience going uh we have a verse i know but we're here to fulfill scripture not just be right about it but what about what about eunuchs yes eunuchs are welcome as well yes but there's a verse i know but we fulfill scripture not be right about the one verse you just found what what about moabites yup yup i'm 128 ball bite myself yup yup uh ammonites yep site yeah we can go through all 613 rules or we can embrace the paradigm shift from who is worthy to who is thirsty but i have a rash no one knows about i know sir i know and we're going to ask you to keep that rash to yourself and please get some cream for it but seriously you too [Music] are welcome in what god's doing jesus taught his followers to be well-based people not fence-based people now great sermons are not meant to be agreed with or disagreed with they're meant to be wrestled with for applications let's ask a few questions next slide like when's the last time i saw god do something that made me uncomfortable like i saw it i can't believe it one of my one of my best friends in the world is a guy named richard crisco richard crisco was the youth pastor for the brownsville revival if you have no context for that i'll just be very simple with it for seven years from 6 a.m to 3 a.m 10 000 people showed up every day 10 000 people showed up at six a.m for a seven pm meeting that then went to three a.m this happened for seven straight years you don't do that without a lot of amazing things happening richard was the youth pastor in the middle of all that i asked her what time i said tell me a story that you didn't think god could do but you saw it because that's easy he said one night it was 2 30 in the morning he said we the line was still a door we're still praying for people he said i was so tired you could barely walk because we've been doing this like that he said i looked up and a group of young adults like 20s had shown up after one in the mornings they had to wait in line they got up to the balcony and they were doing these saturday night live skits right so they were they were making fun of us so they were pretending to pray for one another and then they you know and everybody's clapping and laughing and he said i think in my i think in my irritation i just thought lord send a bear to eat them [Music] it's also in the bible so anyway he said before i knew it they were down here and i thought they'd taken their show down here and i was he said really i wasn't even mad at him i was just so tired he said i walked over to throw them out and um and i got over to throw them out and the leader said please sir help us would you please help us and he said what happened he said we don't know if you noticed but we were up there making fun of you richard said i noticed and he said well the last skit we were going to do was our friend pete pete he's been injured in a motorbike accident he's paralyzed he needs a wheelchair so what we were going to do was tie strings to his ankle his knees his wrist his elbow put him on these poles i was going to pretend to pray for him and then all of us were going to grab the poles and make him move around you know like a puppet like he's healed he's walking and uh chriska said what happened he said well he said i pretended to pray for him and he screamed that a heat went through his legs and he stood up he said i'm reckoning we're messing with something above our pay grade and richard crisco said to me can god use an atheist to pray for another atheist with the goal of making fun and still show him he loves them by helium and i said i don't know and he said me neither and then i saw it happen um i say it this way uh have i honored right wrong and out clean unclean over a hungry thirsty paradigm or maybe this way next slide am i am i a blaming person am i a teachable person am i a flexible person like a godself who am i but but the one question i want us to wrestle with and i want this to be a defining sort of moment for how we think about this because here's the thing leaders at the highest levels in church are already on board with this thinking the problem is is that a leader can only lead an organization as fast as the slowest moving cog in the wheel don't be that person because here's the question i want us to wrestle with ultimately are we going to be a fit space church or a well-based church a who is worthy church or who is thirsty church a sin less church or a love more church everything has to be fixed or nothing has to be hidden uh uh uh focusing on direction or distance are we going to be teachable humble responsible passionate about the infinite possibilities for our world i hope jesus got bigger for you today the cross worked better the resurrection of central scriptures got bigger not smaller and above all things may we be people who don't just believe in jesus but allow jesus to fundamental shake the way we see our whole world may we see the world how he did see god how he did and apply scripture how he did and may we my brothers and sisters dig deeper wells instead of build higher fences grace and peace everybody

Channel: Life Church SC

Views: 420

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: 4u_-KLOrVjY

Length: 43min 54sec (2634 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 28 2021