Phillip and the Eunuch- Ps Shane Willard

welcome everyone we are so excited to come to your home today because it's a long weekend we're not gathering here in this building at the rock church however we will have and we are having a great message with the amazing pastor shane willett so how good is it that you can utilize this time to just rest and enjoy your families we are gathering again next sunday the 25th of july at 9 30 a.m with our live worship team a message and the church catch-ups afterwards with free coffee and tea also our n2y kids ministry will launch with their new renovated room and i can tell you it looks absolutely amazing our the guys here some of the men they have done a great job and so come and invite somebody along okay are you ready for our giving message of our giving declaration you know we are so grateful for your giving because your giving helps us to sow into our communities our missions and to help us to operate and provide pastoral support to you so let's declare this together it's a new declaration and it just gives completely honor to our god so today we declare together you are a good good father and we thank you for your grace and love we come with joyful hearts to freely participate with you in our giving we join you in creative ways to do good to help meet the needs of others as an expression of love in times of uncertainty we hear your voice inviting us to trust you thank you jesus that in you we can overcome every challenging situation you are the one who meets all of our needs according to the riches of your grace towards us in christ because of your grace we can live freely and generously you are good this offering is a testimony of your goodness towards us therefore today with great joy and gratitude we give and we trust you amen so thank you father for your faithfulness thank you lord that you are open our hearts towards some new revelation towards your holy spirit that we can just grow and expand our knowledge of you so i thank you for that holy spirit and now you will see some of your giving options you can give online and after that past again we will introduce our guest speaker i encourage you not only to keep your heart open but keep your mind open because this guy will just take you to new levels he'll unpack so much you're going to be encouraged and he's such a blessing and you know and can i say this about about shane you'll hear shane talk and you'll be wowed but what he's like on stage is what he's like when you have a meal with him he's so relatable he's not only an intellect but he's relatable and so sometimes you don't get both no offense to all the educators here you're a real blessing but shane willard is the man so that being said let's be upstanding and welcome the one the only pastor shane willard [Music] thank you everybody thank you everybody you'll be seated so good to be here with you with my cans family and uh at the rock and and welcome to everybody who has come from other churches uh you're more than welcome here and and a part of our family as well if you're the type let's follow actual bible acts chapter eight we're gonna get there in just a second um on your way out tonight at the back there uh there's a small table set up with our resources um in order to play ball with the space confinements and and and coveted restrictions and that kind of stuff i only brought the new stuff i've done in the last couple years um so there's a series back there on the book of revelation uh the reason i did that was because i was so embarrassed by the stuff i was seeing on the internet i couldn't cope and so we did that during the coveted lockdowns pastors everywhere had me do um online interviews um and so we ended up with like 10 hours worth of q a where i was being interviewed by really smart people that's back there i just finished um a christology course a 10 part series on the nature of christ and the idea is is that if god is like jesus exactly like jesus if god had always been like jesus what implications does that have for things like suffering and judgment and ethics and liberty and love and wrath and things like this and so we address those things back there the reason we do that is because we live with a conviction that we're not simply called to go to heaven when we die we're called to bring heaven to every place we see hell here so a hundred percent of everything we make from that we give to the poor and the afflicted we have three homes in china that look after children with mental disabilities two and hen yang one in chiang sha we also have a rescue in cape town that gets girls out of the sex industry off drugs high school educated and job trained so we can do our part to break the cycle of poverty in the cape flats so everything is available in audio and video it comes in usbs and i'll be i'll be back there the only thing i would ask is that if you don't want anything god bless you i'll see you next time i'm throat um if you know i'm gonna get something if you would do that first and then get your snacks in chat after that um but do be aware that i mean this room is quite full so be aware that you know if if it's packed you know give people space and then and also but be aware that you know you don't want to stand there and look and read every single thing let's honor each other um in that way so but if you could buy first and chat second that'd be awesome because i got to pack it up and take it with me tomorrow and i'm at rockhampton um at my friend claude finkelton's uh on the weekend so uh and then we go to new zealand so uh you could pick that stuff up back uh back there all right so um if you're like me and you have less anxiety if you know what's going to happen let me uh let me set you free um from from whatever you're feeling and let me tell you so it's right now it's currently 706. so when you open the bible you want to ask at least a couple questions one what happened and two and more importantly what's happening in me right now because of what happened right so we're going to take a look at a passage of scripture and we're going to ask those questions and it's going to take me see i realize that a lot of the room's over 40 okay and if you're if you're i'm 45 so i'm with you all right so if you're over 40 that means you don't do things outside after seven i get it okay i do i get it you know you just we just don't we don't do that right so i travel the world sometimes people like hey you want to go to a movie or something i'm like what time does it start they're like 7 45 i'm like what am i an animal what's going on are you kidding me that means i won't be back to like 7 45 so i get it right so it took an act if you're over 40 it took an act of faith for you to be here tonight and um and i want you to i want to honor that so it's going to take me about 16 minutes to explain what happened and then we'll take about 20 minutes and examine what's happening in us right now because of that but ultimately this is tuesday night and you're in church which means i'm feeling zero pressure to be an evangelist right i like that because i'm not a very good one i'm assuming everybody here is a fully devoted follower jesus right and so if that's the case that's great because what i want to do is i want to talk to you about where the church has to go from here so so the the number one question i get asked um is is shane where does the church go from here like surely we're not gonna waste the whole covet thing um what what's where do we go from here and i there's a few answers to that but this is definitely one of them and so if you're going to be a part of where the church is going um in the next 10 years and be happy about it like you could always be a part and like be a jerk there's no problem but if you're going to if you're going to be a part and be happy about it you're going to have to get on board with what we're talking about tonight all right and so before we get to the scripture i want to tell you a story it's a true story that will serve as the primary imagery for what we're going to talk about tonight uh the true story comes from the 80s an american tourist came to australia now i'm american i can tell you americans love australian culture we love it we love it can't get enough of it largely because of a guy named crocodile dundee um we that's fascinating and and a pretty cheap shake house name outback right so between those two things australia we love australian culture like it's unbelievable like if i tell you something americans have never heard of we've never heard of pavlova ever in our life we don't know what that is right so if you go to america and open a pavlova shop you will go broke all right we don't know what that is but if you simply call it the great aussie pot right you'll make millions because you've tied it to australia so when americans come to australia the first thing they want to see is the outback and i try to tell them you don't want to see the outback uh there's nothing there um just uh flight of mount eyes they drive five minutes out of town that is it uh three thousand miles of that uh they they don't listen they they wanna see the outback and americans get enamored by the sheer size of properties we don't have anything like that like bill gates just became the largest private property owner in america he bought a million acres to an american a million acres for yourself is like oh my goodness right to australians it's like a that's a backyard like they said no that's no big deal at all and so the american came to these cattle stations and he got confused he couldn't work out how do you keep the cattle from running away the property's too big you can't fence it up it would cost too much money it would take an act of congress to build your wall or something so so the the so the american just was like he's like wait a minute there's cows the property's too big how do you keep the cows running away so he asked the australian farmer he said how do you keep the cows running away without fences and the australian farmer said well you can't fence up everything he said you what you do is you have a surveyor come in and you dig strategic wells and you create predictable water sources and once you do that and the cows know where that is they won't vary too far from that water source and he said night might if you got the right wells you don't need all those fences which leads me to jesus so jesus comes on the scene in the most fence-based paradigm of ministry ever 613 rules who's in who's out who's right who's wrong who's clean who's unclean jesus shows up and changes the whole thing to two fence posts love god and treat others as you would want to be treated right paul later says it this way he says he says everything we know about scripture can be summed up in one thing love god and treat others as you would want to be treated that jesus called his followers not to be people who believe in him believing in jesus like what are you where a group of people believe in jesus believe in jesus that demons believe in jesus that just qualifies you to be a group but what are you talking jesus is not somebody to be believed in jesus is somebody to fundamentally shape how we see all things that's two different things and jesus called his disciples to never be people obsessing about being right about one verse he called us to do something more profound which is to fulfill scripture by doing unto others as you would have them do unto you they were always trying to trick jesus to be right about one verse hey jesus we found this verse to stone adulterers and we just found this person caught in adultery and he's like yeah yeah but i'm not i'm not concerned about being right about one verse the god revealed in christ loves people more than the rules and called us to fulfill scripture instead of being right about it by doing unto others as you would have them do unto you so where is the church going well the church is going to a well-based thinking instead of offense-based thinking and what does that mean it means that we are called to fulfill scripture and not simply be right about one verse in it there's 613 verses you can find to disqualify others we are not called to obsess about being right about that one thing we are called to fulfill the whole thing by doing unto others as you would have they do unto you which leads me to acts so the book of acts is a group of people who took jesus seriously and they were endeavoring to see the world how jesus saw the world here's the entire first nine chapters of acts in 20 seconds here it is a group of people intentionally show the world how jesus saw the world and they started doing amazing things and then they got persecuted for doing the amazing things and then they overcame the persecution and then they did more amazing things and then they got persecuted then they overcame the persecution then they did more amazing things and then they got persecuted and then they overcame the persecution and then they did more amazing things and then their friend named steven gets murdered and once folks start getting murdered even the most ardent follower of jesus was like we're going to take our show on the road to y'all chill out and they go to a place called samaria and in samaria there's a guy named philip one of jesus's disciples and he's doing amazing things and they're offering you money for it and so then something strange happens and there's this weird story about philip and a nameless man just simply called the ethiopian eunuch now bible study 101 is what read the bible in context here's the problem what do you do when there's no context the story has nothing to do with anything before it nothing to do with anything after it it's just a story voila obviously luke had this story in his back pocket it was so important to what the church was supposed to be he wanted to include it in the book of acts but he wasn't quite sure where to put it so he puts it in there and it sort of just happens and it's so important and so i want us to read this and um ask two questions what happened and more importantly what's happening in us right now because of what happened because the truth of it is the rock church or whatever church you represent here we are called to be well-based people and not fence-based people and if you're going to be a part of what god's doing in the next 10 years in the church we have to move from any fence-based thinking and embrace well-based thinking and i would say if we haven't already done that we're already 15 years behind i could make a case for 2 000 years behind but nonetheless better now than never all right so this is acts chapter uh eight now an angel the lord said to philip rise and go to the south to the road that goes down from 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 a treasure uh 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 let's think about that i already i already have so many questions it's unbelievable like you have a guy who rode a horse from ethiopia to jerusalem according to google maps that's 3 853 kilometers that's a long way to put that in australian terms that's riding a horse from melbourne to mount isaac turning right and coming to cairns it's a long way so this guy rides a horse for 3 853 kilometers which is probably why he's a eunuch he so what would possess a guy to ride a horse for 3 853 kilometers to worship in a place he doesn't speak the language and he's clutching the scroll of a prophet that he wouldn't have been able to read none of this makes a whole lot of sense then it gets weirder check this next slide and the spirit said to philip well go over and join him on his chariot so philip ran and heard him reading isaiah and he said do you even understand what you're reading and the eunuch sort of owns up he's like no how can i unless someone guides me and he invited philip to come up and he sit with him and now the passage of scripture he was reading was this like a sheep he was led to slaughter like a lamb before his sheer is silent so he opens not his mouth and his humiliation justice was denied him who can describe his generation for his life was taken away from the earth and the eunuch said to philip well about whom can i ask you does this prophet is he talking about is about himself in other words his understanding is so elemental he doesn't even know whether isaiah is talking about himself or somebody else or whatever but what he does know is isaiah is describing a god that does not exist above the narrative but rather a god that humbles himself and engages the broken narrative even if the broken narrative kills him in order to make a better story for the broken narrative and that is compelling right next one so so 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 the eunuch said well look here here's some water is there anything preventing me from being baptized in other words can you think of a i'd like to join your jesus movement can you think of a reason that i cannot that is the critical question philip i want to be a part of what jesus is up to can you think of any reason that i can't be a part and this is what we're gonna have to wrestle with and he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water philip and the eunuch and he baptized him and when they came up out of the water the spirit of the lord carried philip away and the eunuch saw him no more so he went on his way rejoicing what a weird story and this story makes me have questions and if i have questions that means you have questions i'm going to share with you my questions and maybe they're the same questions that you have like next slide like is there too much information in this passage like do we really need to know he's a eunuch five times it says so by the way this guy's a eunuch if i haven't mentioned this yet eunuch hey by the way if you don't know this this guy's a eunuch and if i haven't mentioned it yet this guy's five times luke like if you're the eunuch do you want everybody knowing you're a eunuch you can picture that guy confronting luke right now in heaven he's like really bro you told the whole world you put that in the bible are you serious you know willard can't just read over that he's going to tell everybody he's going to point it out and everybody knows i'm a eunuch like that's that's weird why is that important and why is he choosing to worship in jerusalem that's also strange you mean between ethiopia and jerusalem there wasn't one place he could have connected with god like i could think of a few mount sinai like anywhere somewhere but he's coming all the way to jerusalem while clutching the scroll of a prophet named isaiah what does a foreigner eunuch have any interest in a prophet whose primary message was condemning corrupt uses of power against the poor what's what's this got to do with anything and the primary question next slide is is there any reason next one is there any reason he can't be baptized so he says to philip i'm into jesus man this guy you just described i'm in can you think of a reason i can't be in and here's the problem there was there were there were scriptures that forbidded ethiopian eunuchs and it was in the bible so philip has to make a decision do i want to be right about one verse or do i want to fulfill scripture by doing unto others as you would have them do unto you how seriously are we going to take the jesus way of seeing the world because the real question this is going to make us wrestle with is are we going to be a fence-based place or a well-based place are we going to be a fence-based church or a well-based church is there any reason i can't be baptized yeah the problem is it's in the bible let me show it to you this is deuteronomy 23 verse 1. no one who's been emasculated by crushing or cutting can enter into the assembly of the lord god doesn't accept eunuchs it's in the bible we have a verse god doesn't accept eunuchs so when a eunuch says can you think of a reason i can't be a part of the jesus movement the answer is yeah i can there's this verse and this verse says god doesn't accept people like you and philip has a choice and that choice is do i want to be right about deuteronomy 23 or do i want to fulfill scripture by doing unto others as i would have them do unto me and thank god he makes the right choice fence and moses gets on a roll there are more fences in deuteronomy 23 verse 1 2 and 3 than in jesus's entire ministry he keeps going no one bored of a forbidden marriage or any of their descendants can enter the assembly lord not even 10 generations from now i was born in 1976 and in my lifetime i've heard a youth pastor used that passage to try to challenge young teenagers to avoid premarital sexuality the idea was is if you mess up and get them pregnant they'll never be welcome in heaven well that's homer simpson logic that's first second those people left the church then the church people said oh they rejected jesus no they did not they rejected the image of jesus presented to them and some images of jesus should be rejected right and no ammonite or moabite or any of their descendants could enter the assembly of the lord not even 10 generations from now god doesn't accept moabites of course you could see a pretty big problem with that several generations later there was a moabite named ruth who wants to be a part right if jesus's presence himself is sort of very confronting to this if you check jesus's genealogy he's 128th moabite and there were certain questions around the circumstances regarding his birth right it's like wait a minute hang on we can either be look in just the first three verses of deuteronomy 23 there's more fences than jesus's entire ministry 613 of them jesus had two fence posts love god and treat others as you would want to be treated don't be people who obsess about being right about one verse be people who fulfill scripture by doing anothers as you would have been doing to you which leads me to this question why isaiah well on the same scroll this guy was reading from isaiah says something pretty profound if you don't hear me ever say anything else don't you hear me say this if you want to ruin the bible read it statically 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 in the risen christ deuteronomy 23 says no eunuchs isaiah 56 says this 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 sabbaths who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant to them i'll give within my temple and it swallows a memorial and a name better than the sons and daughters in other words not only are they welcome i'll give them a name better than the ones who thought they were welcome like moses clearly says no eunuchs no foreigners isaiah's like upon further review i think god's nicer than that and if a foreigner eunuch wants in god will not only not exclude him he's not going to give him an asterisk by his name actually if he's have an asterisk it's going to be one that makes it better than the rest of it can you see why a foreigner eunuch is so interested in isaiah like a guy that finally saying the god i know will accept you oh next one i'll give them an everlasting name that will endure forever and the foreigners who bind themselves to the lord to minister to the lord to love the name of the lord to be his servants all who keep the sabbath without desecrating it hold fast in my covenant these i'll bring to my holy mountain and give them joy not exclusion joy in my house of prayer there keep going their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations i can read that in hebrew and i can tell you the word all there is actually oh what if they're moabites oh amalekites oh cytonites all right like australians all tongans all samoans all right all nations the sovereign lord declares he who gathers the exiles of israel will gather others besides those already gathered can you see why a foreigner eunuch is so interested in isaiah deuteronomy 23 no foreigners no eunuchs isaiah 56 upon further review god is nicer than that and foreigners and eunuchs who want in god will not only not exclude them he'll give them a better name matthew 19 jesus said some people are born eunuchs because of god if you can hear that then hear it if you can't whatever and by acts 8 you have a follower of jesus who didn't just believe in jesus but wanted to see the world how jesus saw the world he is faced with a dilemma 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 any of it and that is fulfill scripture by doing unto others as you would have them do unto you what does it take to be a well-based place it takes to be people who are not just believing in jesus but are fundamentally seeing the world how jesus saw the world it means a commitment to fulfill scripture instead of being right about singular verses now if you're a linear learner instead of a narrative learner you've already lost me right so if you're a linear learner i did this for you next slide so in this story you have two people you have the ethiopian eunuch he's a god fear the problem is he would have been disqualified by the rules and you have philip one of the original 12 from a devoutly orthodox village called beseda he would have lived by all 613 fences but then he met jesus and began to be a well-based thinker instead of a fence-based thinker because if you got the right wells you don't need all those fences and by the way this story has quite a lot of fruit to it next slide today two-thirds of ethiopia identify as christ followers two-thirds of an entire nation identifies christ followers ethiopian christians are indigenous like people don't tend to move there the ethiopian church today traces their origins back to this one eunuch in other words you never know we're being kind enough and brave enough to fulfill scripture instead of being right about some verse you can find you never know the far-reaching impact that can have two-thirds of a country are christ followers today because of that one act in other words you could fulfill scripture today or spend 10 billion later trying to evangelize the people that you wouldn't need to evangelize if we'd just been kind in the first place and by the way that's the whole book of acts next slide is an entire book about being surprised by how generous god is with people who want it like remember there's this one time peter's preaching and it says the holy spirit filled the gentiles and this surprised everybody including peter and the christ followers who were with peter they were like hey peter god doesn't fill gentiles right and remember peter's response he's like i know i know then i saw it and who might argue with what i see if god's doing it who might argue remember in acts 4 it says they were amazed that uneducated normal people were being used by god why is that amazing because it never happened before this is a dynamic progressive shift from fence-based thinking to well-based thinking what does that mean it means we don't just believe in jesus we want to see the world how he saw it it means we endeavor to fulfill scripture instead of being right about one verse now that's my best effort at explaining what happened let's spend the rest of the time examining language around what it means for us see if i was to say the church in cairns should be a well-based place never a fence-based place everything in you goes yeah like no one in here would go no we need to make it harder nobody would do that but if we don't have language for what that is it's very frustrating so i've worked hard to put some language around this next slide jesus doesn't ask are you worthy jesus seems to ask are you thirsty that's two different things let's keep with our primary image a fence-based place obsesses on who is worthy a well-based place obsesses on who is thirsty who wants it the way jesus saw the world and the way jesus saw god was if you want it we can trust god to do all the convicting and all the changing in your life we are not called to be the agents of conviction or change we're called to be the agents of love and people who facilitate and celebrate everybody's next chest our only question is do you want it and if you want it we can trust god to do all the convicting and all the changing right a fence-based place obsesses on who's worthy a well-based place obsesses on who is thirsty a fence-based place obsesses on sending less this is what that sounds like we don't play around with sin around here we'll call it what it is tell you to stop sinning okay again the sentiment is fine the less you engage in behavior that belongs to death the better your life will be absolutely but to fight sin by forbidding sin is like fighting a fire with a spark gun right a fence-based place obsesses on sending less a well-based place obsesses on loving more and by loving more you will automatically send less a well-based place says everything needs to be fixed so fifth base place says hey a fifth base place says hey bring us all your problems we're the experts of good and evil and we'll get in the middle of it and fix it for you what like and who wants that pressure a well-based place says nothing has to be hidden in other words we're going to create a shame-free atmosphere where you can bring all your stuff just as you are and we can trust the holy spirit to do all the convicting and all the changing in your life let's keep with our primary imagery a fence-based place obsesses on who is worthy a well-based placed on who is thirsty a fence space placed on sending less a well-based place on loving more a fence-based place obsesses on everything needs to be fixed a well-based place obsesses on nothing needs to be hidden it seems to me that the enemy of a christ-centered community is not sin it's not that compelling the enemy of a christ-centered community is when we lose our thirst when we lose our desire when we lose our passion when we lose our want to so let's put some language around that next slide so lack of thirst is the lack of teachability like the root word disciple in hebrew and greek is student one who is teachable this is when we think you know what if i haven't thought of it it can't be true me and my infinite knowledge and the way i was always taught got to be the only way to think about things and we shut down conversations instead of opening them about god let's say it in the positive a thirsty culture is a teachable culture a thirsty culture is a humble culture this is where we realize that liberty is best expressed and experienced when it's submitted to the higher ethic of love every temptation of jesus on the cross was use your power to violate love and he wouldn't do it even under great stress the way jesus saw the world the way jesus saw god was you never use your power at the expense of love never ever ever it's called humility you prefer the other person i'd say this way a lack of thirst is when we lose our responsibility in the genesis poem even before sin entered the story people got their meaning from how well they navigated responsibility for their world and as soon as sin entered the story they started blaming and scapegoating let's say it in the positive a thirsty culture is a teachable culture it's a humble culture it's a responsible culture it's a it's a it's a culture passionate about the infinite possibilities for our world see when we lose our thirst we get ambivalent this is the problem with fence-based thinking fence-based thinking is just be in you're now out make a decision to be in and then that's it it becomes obsessed with conversion but the problem with being obsessed with conversion is it it sounds like this if i could use an orange as an example hey you're not currently in orange but if you say a prayer that we said you connect you could like go from not being an orange to be an orange and then now what will we sit on our butt wait to go to heaven when we die what like our christianity cannot be sitting on our butt waiting to go to heaven when we die that's boring unless you're 107 if you're 107 you could wait to go to heaven when you die it's coming quickly right but if you're not 107 that means we woke up today with infinite possibilities for for what it is to impact our world let's let's state it in the positive 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 can call that anything for our purposes we'll call it church but if an alien from outer space said excuse me we've been studying humans and you have a word that we don't know it's there's nothing even familiar can you please tell us what church is and you're like okay church church is a group of people endeavoring to see the world how jesus saw the world and see god how jesus saw god which means we obsess on who is thirsty not who is worthy we obsess on loving more not sending less we obsess with nothing has to be hidden instead of everything has to be fixed and not only that we're teachable humble responsible and passionate about the infinite possibilities to impact our world you could call that anything and it's not just worth going to it's essential for society to continue on in peace the whole world converted to that idea the world would be a better place that's the thing let's put some more language around this next slide 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 love god and treat others as you'd want to be treated by acts 15 10 years after jesus they had moved the whole thing from 613 fences to four food sacrifice to idols blood meat of strangled animals and sexual immorality think about the immediate impact jesus had on his world like i i get 2 000 years of impact i did it but just for right now think about the first 10 years to successfully move an entire culture from 613 fences to 4 in 10 years with the goal of getting to two that is one massive massive impact let's say this way next slide are we gravitating to the center regardless of the fencing because fences matter less if we're moving toward the center anyway like that's a question i want us to wrestle with as followers of jesus are we gravitated to the center regardless of what defenses say anyway and the answer should be yes let me say that a couple different ways if heaven and hell weren't the issue is jesus still worth following that took too long okay if um if heaven and hell were not the issues jesus still worth following like hopefully you imagine jesus asking you one day why'd you follow me and your answer is like well i'd hate to go to hell that'd be like that'd be like your wife asking you why'd you marry me and your only answer is well the other chick was ugly right like option b sucks you know what are you talking about like i don't know if i'm getting this point across so let me illustrate it so um some fences are absolutely necessary for civilization to be okay okay so let me give you one here's a great one it's in the bible right we should keep it for sure ready don't kill each other that is an outstanding fence outstanding do not murder each other here's the problem with that right i would bet no one in here murdered anybody this week all right so i'd bet a pretty good amount of money that no one in here murdered someone this week i would also bet it's not because the bible says it's because you're not a killer like if you still need the bible to tell you don't kill you probably miss the whole point right here's another good one ready don't take each other's things perfect right seriously and i would bet no one in here stole anything this week i would also bet the reason is not because the bible says it's because you're not a thief if you still need the bible to tell you don't steal you may have missed the whole point here's another this is a good this is such a good one we honestly don't sleep with each other's spouses that is outstanding seriously don't wife swap when you start wise swapping things start breaking down pretty quickly don't sleep with each other's spouses and i would bet again no one in here right now is currently sleeping with someone else's spouse right now if your heart's beating real fast right now and you're like oh god don't go prophetic stop right right if that's you if that's if that's your response to that like i would just urge you change your life stop quit doing that and and don't tell us all about it don't drag us into your mess just stop right but but here's the thing i would bet no one in here is currently sleeping with someone else's spouse i would also bet the reason is not because the bible says it's because you don't want to bring pain and disrepair to people you love like seriously if you need the bible to tell you that like you might have missed the point if you don't get what i'm saying here's what i want you to do when this is over and you go home um i want you to sit with your spouse and make each other the night beverage of your choice whatever that is and um and have a sip of the night beverage and then i want you to like hold each other by the hand and this is what i want you to say sweetie i just want you to know that um i love you with all my heart it's like i love you infinity like there's no love is not a big enough word it's impossible for me to love anybody as much as i love you um but the only reason i'm not sleeping with everybody else is because unfortunately the bible forbids it see how your night goes right we all know there's a more profound reason to choose life right like you don't need the fence if you're gravitating to the center anyway let's say it this way are we more focused on direction or distance let's keep with our primary imagery a fence-based place obsesses with who is worthy a well-based place on who is thirsty a fence-based place obsesses on sending less a well-based place loving more a fence-based place obsesses on everything has to be fixed a well-based place nothing has to be hidden a well-based place is teachable humble responsible and passionate about the infinite possibilities for our world let's say it another way a fence-based place obsesses on distance a well-based place obsesses on direction right so fence-based place asks how many more fences can you jump over to be a part of our paddock like have you believed all 33 things we tell you you got to believe and have you done the ritual and you've given the right right so it's it's that a well-based place doesn't ask any of those questions a well-based place says what direction is your shoulder facing and if you're facing towards the center we're here to facilitate and celebrate your next guest whatever your next chest is we trust god to move you so we're going to facilitate and celebrate that next yes let's see illustrate this with a story that um this is a true story that happened it was quite moving when i tell you this story i want you to pay attention to your heart okay so i want you to pay attention to your heart response when i tell you the story so i was asked to do a volunteers night um it was a tuesday night meeting this church was enormous tuesday night 400 people just to be in the meeting you had to be on team this is a massive thing and uh and my job was to motivate the volunteers to keep volunteering and and so part of what they do is they did this segment called minute to win it where anybody could get up and tell a god story about something they saw god do um within what they were doing but you had to do it in 60 seconds or less it's brilliant so they had this guy on a on a on a stopwatch and if it got to 60 seconds it beeped if it beat the sound guy muted the mic and then take the mic and and and so it kept people from rambling is so good everybody got into it because you had to do it fast and it just all of this absolute just raucous stuff well i had to get up after this and the guy who went last got up and this is what he said hell everybody i'm an atheist and i thought to myself dude you trying to ruin a party here like what are you doing but listen how it went he said i'm an atheist but i'm a lonely atheist and i was talking to a friend of mine and he said that you people don't care whether i'm an atheist or not to let me belong to your thing so i decided to come and true to his word you are the nicest group of people i've ever encountered none of you care whether i believe in god or not to let me belong to your thing so by second week one of you asked me to be on the host and hostess team and i said yes so my job every sunday is to stand on the door be nice and tell first-time guests where the bathroom is he said you are a church with an atheist door greeter and i thought this is awesome and he said my testimony is this because of your kindness i'm going to step back tonight and reconsider god might be real see see what happened in you there the whole place erupted why because when an atheist considers god might be real that is a yes in the right direction that we should facilitate and celebrate a well-based place can do that a fence-based place can't a fence-based place would be like has he believed all the right things to be a part of our thing a well-based place is like are you kidding me look at his shoulders they're facing we're here to facilitate and celebrate everybody's next yes um let's review a fence-based place obsesses on who is worthy a well-based place who is thirsty a fence-based place on sitting less a well-based place on loving moore fence space place not everything has to be fixed a well-based place on nothing has to be hidden a fence place place obsesses on distance a well-based place obsesses on direction because a well-based place sees the world and sees god that if someone wants it we can facilitate and celebrate their next chest because we're teachable humble responsible and passionate about the infinite possibilities for our world let's put some more language around this next life in old communities the whole village centered around the well what if we built wells instead of fences created thirst and life and provision and prosperity next slide let's say it this way jesus was a fence destroyer and a well-invited philip ignores all the fences and just keeps talking about the well can you see any reason i can't be baptized yes you're a foreigner and you're a eunuch the bible says but the way jesus taught philip to see the world and to see god was to fulfill scripture and not be right about those one or two verses that we're going to do unto others as you would have them do unto us see we don't need any sense that doesn't lead to the will fences that function properly are carrying people to the well and any offense that is a hurdle to the will has missed the whole point which leads me to jesus every year to this day in israel and jews all around the world they do something every year for seven days that's going to sound a bit weird they choose to live outside and tense i know it's strange right if i was to say i got an idea everybody let's spend seven days a year living outside intense to get closer to god your question would be why is the hilton not open right but the reason is and this is a caricature okay the reason is it's called the feast of sukkot or tabernacles the reason is is because they never want to forget that their ancestors were homeless refugee slaves in the wilderness so when they do that they make a confession my father was a wandering aramian my father was a homeless refugee slave you can read about it deuteronomy 26 and here's what they know that they'll admit that my if god had not touched my life if god had not interjected himself into my story i would still be a homeless refugee slave but because god interjected himself into my story i'm no longer a homeless refugee slave i now have whatever i have but here's what they realize if we ever lose sight of where we would be had god not interjected our story we'll lose sight of our responsibility and their story and every year on the seventh day they have a closing ceremony and in jerusalem that closing ceremony takes place at the temple and it's in that context that jesus says to me a top three most radical thing he ever said and that's a big call because he said a lot of radical things think about a christ-centered community of people who are trying to see the world how jesus saw the world instead of just believing him check this next life on the last and greatest day of the feast jesus stood and said in a loud voice let anyone who's thirsty come to me and drink anyone who believes in me as the scripture has said rivers of living water will flow from within them of this he was speaking of the spirit what in other words you know the entire presence of god that you've been told is relegated to the inner room of the building behind me we're changing the rules it's now available to everybody can you what would be your question what must we do want it just be thirsty do you want it now i'm going to reread the passage and i'm going to add two words and i admit i'm adding the words but i want you to pay attention to your heart when i add the words because i'm doing it for effect okay 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 the within them and of this he was speaking of the spirit any questions can you imagine if he to open that up to q a what if you're a moabite yes i'm one 28th mobile myself moabites are welcome if they want in yep amalekites yup side nights yup eunuchs yes unix are welcome yes they are we can go through all 613 rules or we can just understand that we're changing the whole paradigm from who is worthy to who wants it we could do the whole thing yeah what about side night yeah cytonites too great i have a rash no one knows about yes yes i know people with rashes are welcome just kind of keep it to yourself and don't mention that to everybody else but but you have a rash you're welcome right jesus changed the whole thing from who is worthy to who is thirsty now great sermons are not meant to be agreed with nor disagreed with they're meant to be wrestled with for application like what are we going to do with this how's this going to change the way we see church and our world are we a fence-based thinker or a well-based thinker and let's ask a few questions next slide when's the last time i saw god do something that made me uncomfortable so i saw god do something i didn't think god would do that and i thought wow let me illustrate this with a true story um one of my best friends in the world is a guy named richard crisco richard crisco was the youth pastor for something called the brownsville revival in the 90s if you're over 50 you're like oh yeah richard crisco if you're under 40 you're like who is he still greece what's up so it's richard crisco was the youth pastor for the brownsville revival if you don't know what that was that was seven years of 10 000 people a night um people were lining up at 6 a.m for 7 p.m meetings um it was just unbelievable and so i i had dinner with richard in um in detroit at a place called chili's and i said i said richard tell me a story from brownsville that changed the way you saw god like it it made you didn't think god could do that he goes oh easy he said there was this one night he said it was 2 30 in the morning and we were still praying for people and the line was out the door and remember we'd been there since 6 a.m and it was 2 30 and we had to be there at 6 00 am again the next day right so he said i was so tired i could barely stand and he said what happened was is there was a group of young adults you know early 20s up in the balcony and they had showed up after midnight if you show up if you show up after midnight you'd have to wait in line you just come in and just watch or be a part or whatever so they were up in the balcony and they were doing saturday night livestyle skits making fun of us so the guy would pretend to pray they would pretend to be touched by god and everybody clap and laugh and he said i remember i was so tired i thought god sent a bear to eat them he said the next thing i knew they'd come down to the front and i thought they'd brought their show down i was going to have them thrown out he said i really wasn't even mad at him i just was tired and i eyeballed security and said you know and so i walked over and i said to them hey guys seriously enough's enough you guys got to go and he said about that he said the leader of the group said pastor richard please help us and he said what happened to you he said i don't know if you noticed but we were up there making fun of you and richard said i noticed and he said and he said this is our friend pete pete has been paralyzed in a motorbike accident enough to where he needs a wheelchair and so our last skit of the night was we had tied strings to pete's ankles knees wrist elbow and we had put it on poles and i was going to pretend to pray for him and then we were all going to move him around like a puppet like he's getting out of a wheelchair you know because if you have friends like that really right and richard said uh what happened he said well i pretended to pray for him and pete yelled out that he was on fire and he got up out of the wheelchair without any help and he said i realized i'm messing with something that's above my pay grade can you help me and richard crisco asked me can god use an atheist to pray for another atheist with the intention of making fun of god and still healing and i said i don't know and he said me neither he said but then i saw god do it and who was i to argue and i would say if we haven't seen god do something make us uncomfortable it's not because god stopped just because we quit paying attention see have i honored a right wrong in and out clean and unclean paradigm instead of a hungry thirsty one where are we still in and out thinkers instead of women do they want it and can i facilitate and celebrate their next yes am i blaming anybody right now or am i taking responsibility for my world next one am i a teachable person am i open to learning new things that do i understand that whoever the smartest person in australia is about god they still haven't scratched one one thousandth of one percent of what god is and we have an eternity of meaningful expiration am i a flexible person like if god saw fit to fill them with the holy spirit who might argue but the one thing i want us to leave and i want it to never leave us is this question are we building deeper wells or higher fences are we digging deeper wells or building higher fences because the church and cans to be a part of what god's going to be doing and be happy about it we got to be well-based thinkers not fence-based thinkers what does that mean it means we fulfill scripture and not be right about one verse it means we see the world how jesus saw the world not simple belief it means that we focus and obsess on who is thirsty not who is worthy on loving more not sinning less on nothing has to be fit on nothing has to be hidden is that everything has to be fixed we obsess about direction not distance we facilitate and celebrate everybody's next yes while we're being teachable humble responsible and passionate about the infinite possibilities for our world now when we do that and here's the thing leaders at the highest level of church in australia are already on board with this here it's obvious here's the problem local church leaders can only move their church as fast as the slowest moving cog in the wheel don't be the cog in the wheel and what that means is we need to repent and i don't mean some sort of shame base i'm so sorry i mean i'm going to change the way i think from fence-based thinking to well-based thinking so lord would you give us the courage to see things different the irresistible urge to respond to what we see would you empower us to abandon the fence-based thinking and embrace the well-based thinking would you bring to our mind right now a place that needs to change a fence-based mentality and give me the courage to shift to a well-based mentality amen would you look this way thanks so much let me be a part of your night i hope jesus got bigger the cross works better the resurrection is central the scriptures got bigger not smaller may we be the people who embrace the well and abandon the fence grace and peace [Applause] everybody well how many people enjoy that let's just give them another round of applause eh that was great [Applause] if you want to watch that again it'll be actually on our website um on our live streaming on sunday so we'll just record it as you can watch it again but it won't be loaded till about 9 30 on sunday um other than that please don't forget um just to honor you know um on a is active not passive so if you want to give to shane and all the work that he does um do it through if possible online but um it's an early night um i know you want more but um just go and think about that yeah i'll buy one of his resources that'd be really cool so other than that we release you to go thank you for coming and thank you for going and but we still love you that being said go over and see shane um yeah and have some conversations there is coffee and snacks if you would like to but if you need to go we release you to go god bless you and go new south wales tomorrow night you

Channel: Rock Church Cairns

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Id: A_jrek_26Io

Length: 57min 57sec (3477 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 17 2021