Resisting the Polarizing Powers

well welcome to woodland hills we are so glad that you're joining us today and you know what if this is your first time tuning in welcome we're so glad that you're here and i know that uh god is going to speak to you in a fresh way and we hope you feel welcome yeah wherever you are tuning in we want you to know that you that we welcome you and that you are loved and that you have been prayed for and so right now let's just collectively enter in let's let's turn our focus away from all the things of the week and just turn our focus into worshiping jesus wherever you are whatever time of day or night that you're listening to this know that in this moment you are amongst a kingdom of believers that are joining together to worship the lord and we thank you that you're a part of it and we are so excited for god to meet us in a special way today so let's worship [Music] all this pain i wonder if i'll ever find my way i wonder if my life could really change at all all this earth could all that is lost ever be found could a garden come up from this ground at all you make beautiful things you make beautiful things out of the [Music] dust you make beautiful things you make beautiful things out of us [Music] [Music] ground out of chaos you make beautiful things you make beautiful things sing at our church you make out of [Applause] [Music] you us beautiful things out of the dust you make beautiful things you make beautiful things [Applause] [Music] [Music] now you make me know you are making me new you make [Music] me is [Applause] [Music] oh amen let's continue our worship to god this morning [Music] so [Music] here [Music] i [Music] [Music] come [Music] for you [Music] is [Music] [Music] i need i will find my life in you you're always enough always enough [Music] all i need [Music] if i have you i have everything but without you i have nothing if i have you i have everything but without you i have nothing if i have you i have everything but without you i have nothing if i have you i have everything but without you i have nothing if i have you i have everything but without you [Applause] but without you i have nothing always enough [Music] all i need i will find my life in you you're always always all right [Music] you're [Music] you're always enough always enough let the fullness of your love be all i need [Music] yes lord you're always enough god [Music] and you're all that we need and we need to sing that out and we need to make that our prayer that we would find fullness in life through you because we so often don't do that we find our lives in other things we chase after other things some good things some things that just really aren't the best thing for us but god you are the reason that we're here you're the reason that we're experiencing life it truly is incredible it truly is miraculous that any of us can say that we're here and so just help us to remember that the gift of life that comes only from you and help us to get all of our worth [Music] and all of our life from you god because you are the center of the universe you're the source of all life of all goodness of all beauty and that's why you're worthy god you're worthy of our worship help us to bring all of that into our worship this morning and just let our lives be a reflection of worship to you god because you deserve it [Music] amen [Music] my ear than the thunder great waters mightier than the breakers of the sea it's you transfer it's you is in majesty mightier than the skies that hold the clouds [Music] you mightier than the heavens high above it's you stands firm it's you is thrown in majesty all the seas lift up their voices and the skies they found their big jaws yeah the rocks they cry out your name and time to stand still [Music] it's you transform [Music] [Music] marches on you're mightier than the countless centuries oh it's you transfer it's you he's in [Music] [Music] stand still time to stand still we just stand still this glorious moment can't just until we sing out loud we sing out to you i love just listening out our love to god it's time just stand still we just danced in this glorious moment i can't just until we sing out loud [Music] sing out sing out [Applause] yes fingers lift up their voices and the skies [Applause] and time just danced [Music] they found their big draws [Music] and all the seas they lift up their voices and the skies they found their big jumps yeah the rocks they cry out your name and time to stand still we just stand still man thank you that was beautiful worship thank you christy and danny and nimmy and timu for reminding us that god makes beautiful things out of dust and out of us and in all the ways that god has been faithful to show his love towards me in my life with him i think the most consistent thing he has done is he's been a restorer and he consistently does that in my life and i know that he desires to do that in your life so whatever it is god is in the business of restoring of making beautiful things out of ugliness making beautiful things out of dust if we just trust him and allow him to do that i know that he will show himself faithful to you thank you for worshiping with us my name is shauna boren i'm one of the pastors here i love my church i love that you guys are here with us i love that we get to worship our glorious god and i want to thank you all for your support of woodland hills that enables us to be able to do the things that we feel called to do within the community in the city and around the world even during this crazy time thank you for your faithfulness and your giving and showing up and just being a part of our community and so now if you do give regularly to woodland you can do that by hopping online and or going onto the app but right now will you pray with me as we enter into this time of offering lord i thank you that you make beautiful things out of us god and i thank you lord that sometimes it's hard to see even today especially today your your beauty at work in the world but it's there it's their god and we thank you for that we thank you because you are ever faithful and you are ever true and lord i pray that you would continue to guide us and lead us as a church body to serve you to serve others to lovingly serve others god we thank you for that opportunity we thank you for all those who partner with us as we do what we feel called to do by you oh god [Music] when ultimately jesus we just trust you we trust you and we thank you in jesus name amen [Music] all right thank you thank you thank you um hey my friend and co-worker rob kisler is here with me i've got a partner today hey good morning everyone how you doing fabulous good were you with us last night rob we had a little event here so can i just mention we did indeed we did and so a couple of days ago i knew that we were going to be reflecting on this event and i was actually feeling really bad for the extended congregation who couldn't be here and i'm thinking how are we going to talk about this delicious like chocolate cake and say yeah but you can't be a part of it well it turns out you were lucky you weren't apart it was something so last night we had our first on-site event in months you guys and there was so much planning and preparation that went into it so that we could all come safely be outside and praise the lord together but though you know it's 20 20 and so the weather had some other plans for us and we got a bit rained out just a bit just a bit we got two songs in this is what rob's talking about you didn't you didn't miss much we got two songs in and then the blessing of the lord in the form of rain happened and then all of the little um puns of the spirit raining down we can just skip past all of that and so we were left scrambling to put things away quickly and send people home a for effort for everybody who put this together absolutely for a for everybody who even when it started raining and we didn't know we were going to be stopping nobody up with the chairs and left everybody stayed it was actually really cool they were minnesotans right it's not snow i know i told greg i got a little hitchhim i get along when we were trying to quickly like put tables and stuff away and kind of tweak my back up oh no it's all right it's all good it's all good all right well we've got some other things that we are thankful for indeed uh you guys have been giving to our fundraising campaign for working families right we have raised thirteen thousand nine hundred eleven dollars so far you give yourselves a big hand that's amazing that's really cool like helping these kids come and do their online work so that reminds me of there was a story we heard in the pastor's meeting can you share that real quick yeah yeah that's a good so here it is as quick as i can one of our staff was helping with these kids and there was this kid getting really frustrated because they didn't know something that was happening on their tablet i assume and the kids started to go to i'm stupid and how horrible is that but the staff persons noticed that this was because they hadn't learned something last spring in the crap show that was coveted in the spring and so they didn't learn something here our staff person stepped in helped this kid connect to this information they didn't get now they were able to understand what they were doing and and and this little this little mind that was that was about to go off the tracks is now been tipped back onto the tracks been spoken into like yeah you got this you can do this and now that kid is rolling down the tracks again and that's because of our partnership with with close to my heart yeah it's so great thank you man offer where you can but be praying for these people as well there's really important kingdom stuff happening in these little minds yeah in this crucial time the money is being got going towards uh devices and also tutors um and people just to kind of help out so thank you for giving we had asked that you would be keeping us in prayer i know that you do as we pray for you all but this next uh several weeks we ask that you especially keep us in prayer because we're entering into a series called a house divided and so here in the states um we've got an election coming up i don't know if you've heard about it i do yeah shocker i know i think it's been kind of under the radar um but it's it's big it's um and people are are big in their feelings they're big in their emotions and so uh like we do we're going to we're going to hit it head on yeah in a kingdom way yeah we are going to talk about what it means to be kingdom people in this divisive polarizing time leading up to this little election that's coming up man if anybody should be able to get their heads around this i'm sorry i watched it you're good you're good it should be the church yeah and we'll just leave it at that but hopefully we will be able to engage in a fresh perspective on this and man i would encourage you to be just thinking about how you can get these sermons out to other folks through your through your channels and invite people to hear the message that we're trying to proclaim because good grief can we regain civil discourse and civil conversation in this country yeah and i would say even worldwide like the the concepts that you're going to hear are if you're a kingdom person you can utilize them in your life so that's true yeah very true so rob one of your roles here is you oversee our lay counseling ministry is that correct that's right um really quickly what the heck is lay counseling well if we could just roll a couch out here right now lay down lounge no no no no we uh for years i mean for years greg had had a vision and a desire that mental health be a part of the offerings of this church and it has been for gosh better than 15 years 15 to 20 years now and we counsel first of all people in a congregation who don't have uh health insurance but as often happens that word starts to get out into the community and now there's a number of people who just in the community don't don't have health insurance um but they've heard about our very very inexpensive but good lay counseling and that's just people in our congregation our body who say i have a heart for that i want to be trained in that and let's help some people and that's what we do awesome and so right now you're looking for those people those people to to act as legal counselors to offer that service exactly yeah this is not a request for people to come for it though if you need to like reach out but this is really a shout out to people who are in our congregation saying you know what that's kind of interesting to me and if you're that far into it here's what i want to ask you to do join me on tuesday night on zoom i need to send you the link so email me basically is what i'm asking you to do or you can email info wh church.org they'll get the in your email to me we're going to do a little informational meeting on tuesday night 8 p.m and we'll go from there central time so for those who aren't local can they be a la counselor can they get in on this as well so this is something i'm also super excited about is guess what world we have just become one big happy world now and because of zoom and everything that's happening we're gonna just open this up to everybody so to our extended congregation out in every part of the earth you can be a part of this now and you can join us in offering this to people and i'm smiling because you wanted to say walla walla washington didn't you i did i did i did i held it back well if you have this on your heart please reach out to rob join them from the for the informational meeting on tuesday evening it is a wonderful way to be a blessing and to minister to others who are hurting so thanks for that yeah let me have one last thing because let me just tell you this goes for seven months the training is a long pretty intensive training because we're inviting you into some really you know difficult places in people's lives and we need to and people are complex so yeah it's not just a couple of weeks and let's just send you out there yeah you're well trained yeah yeah thanks rob and thank you guys for tuning in for all of these things that we've got going on if you want more details remember hop on the app or check out the website it's all there thanks guys [Music] [Applause] [Music] find a lovely sunday morning and now we know that shawna has a in her get along is that i gotta in my catch i hitch him i get along i i i love when she comes off these texas systems they're just great i'm greg boyd teaching pastor here it's really good to be here with all of you thanks to sandra for doing such an incredible job last week wasn't that a great message if you if you didn't hear that i encourage you to uh to check it out on the way here this morning um i was rushing out the door and i saw some bottled water that that's on this little cabinet right as we're heading up as i'm heading out the door grabbed it inside the car and just take a swig of that nice water because i'm a little thirsty turns out it wasn't water it was hand sanitizer so then i was already late i had to go back and scourge my mouth for about five minutes and you never can quite get the taste out so i'm chewing gum this morning and that's breaking a an etiquette rule like we care about that but uh once in a while i went and passed it sometimes spits out and i don't want to do that so if it happens excuse me but i'm trying to get up the first time i've ever preached with a sanitized mouth a pure and unclean mouth i mean a pure clean mouth all right i hope you guys are all doing well um it's it's tough it's a tough time and if you're struggling and uh sad and worried and feeling lonely maybe sometimes more angry i'm on edge than usual i want you to know that you're not alone you're not at all alone uh in this season i think that's pretty normal uh if you're functional if you're functional then then pat yourself on the back it's a it's a tough uh tough thing i encourage this as i have from the beginning of this if you're struggling with that one of the things that can make a difference i the first message we had when quote landed was to give thanks find take don't take anything for granted and just maybe write that in a journal and you'll find that that just lifts the heart uh be grateful for everything the worse things get the more give thanks so we're now down to our last beatitude and it has to do with persecution and so uh it says this matthew chapter 5 verses 10 through 12 blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when people revile you and persecute persecute you and utter all kinds of evils against you falsely on my account rejoice be glad for your reward is great in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you i'm going to ask the question why does jesus assume that his followers are going to be persecuted and spoken evil against and lied about and things like that because you know being a christian is about loving people right loving unconditionally being exceptional in your love doing good serving others why would that incur the wrath of others why would that make you hated to anybody it's a kind of an interesting question now i know there's some christians today who will say well the reason is we're persecuted because we stand up against sin and sinners just don't like that they don't like that but i submit to you that if you're if you're standing if people don't like you it's not because you're standing up against sin it's because you're standing up against everyone else's sin instead of your own if you stood up against your own sin and we're all allowed about that i bet you'll get a pause everywhere and that's kind of what jesus means when he says don't go looking for that dust particle when you got a tree trunk sticking out of your own eye no that's not the reason why the early followers of jesus were persecuted in fact jesus so far as i can recall didn't go wrong doing that pointing out people's sin the disciples didn't go around pointing out people's sin to the contrary they went around announcing god's forgiven your sin so why were they persecuted now to answer this uh that question i'm i'm going to kind of go backwards here it's like those i don't ever seen those gags where they they give you the answer uh and and before they give you the question um and it makes it kind of sometimes an interesting conclusion but so i'm gonna here back into this in a way where you won't see what this has to do with persecution you won't see what it has to do with answering that question until toward the end of the sermon and then you'll see how it all relates together but i'm sharing it like this because this is the way i got it i got it yesterday morning and frankly it blew apart the sermon i was preparing to give and and so so just hang on to that i'm going to require your attention on this i i'll also add that this message it's once in a while i'll say this i feel a gravitas to it that that i'm just paying attention to this is important feels foundationally important also i want you to know that uh we're not having a q a afterwards so that gives a little bit of flex time on the other end of things little you know time-wise i just don't i don't want to be worried about the clock on this one and i haven't i haven't played that card for a long time mary so so don't shoot me out i and maybe i won't go over i'm just saying i i i i on this one i just i wanted to it's got to come out how it comes out so here i'll start with this we're kingdom ambassadors folks uh which means we're here to represent a different king an alternative kingdom it means that uh we're here with a mission we have a job to do and it's to ultimately look like jesus and love like jesus be individually and corporately the body of christ doing what jesus did manifesting god's love to all people at all times paul puts it this way in ephesians five it's kind of a thematic verse of ours he says be imitators of god and then live in love as christ loved us and gave his life for us that kind of sums it all up even many jesus um and again and in doing that see we represent this alternative kingdom this alternative king and manifest the character of god in doing that we invite people to share in this to come come under it to be a part of this but it also means this to be an ambassador means that wherever you're stationed is not your real home the word ambassador implies that you're in a foreign land the bible talks about this we should consider ourselves in a foreign land because we're ambassadors you you may be legally belong to america or whatever country that you're listening to this from but but but paul says the truth is in philippians 3 our citizenship is in heaven and when you think about heaven don't think up there think out there in the future jesus is returning with his kingdom and that's our true home and we long for that but because we're we're we we belong to a different home represent a different king are under a different kingdom for that reason we have to always remember that we're on mission and our job is to invite people in on this as we serve people to manifest the love of god it's the same for all of us now see as ambassadors we need to know the la the kind of lay of the land that we are stationed in we need to have our thumb on the pulse of kind of what's going on in the land in which we're stationed and so i i i want to just spend the first part of this message naming naming the land that we're in the situation we're in so far as i can see and in a word i'll just say it's a mess the name i would give this is mess we are in a mess we are in what i think is becoming a perfect storm where there's different storms that are powerful and mighty in and of themselves but they're coming to converge together it is i think a historic moment and it could be a historic moment for the church if the church can respond as the church in this converging of of of perfect storms and if they're not converging already early november i'm suspecting they will converge and grow even more intense so i just want to name the the this thing that we're in right now name some of these storms number one we're in a season of remarkable racial unrest in some ways that's not even a season that's kind of the 400 year history of america but that it pops to the surface every now and then more forcefully than other times and this is one of those times where it's popping forth i think a a turn was made with george floyd's murder and then there's been other since then and there's many many others before then but this week it's been over the the the verdict of brianna taylor a lot of unrest around this now this is polarizing because everything is polarizing in this polarizing environment we're in the polarizing powers which is the title of this message the polarizing powers are working overtime to polarize us so everything is weaponized but so you'll have a lot of folks who will say well look you got to trust the system democracy doesn't survive unless you people trust the system and we need law and order and i i get that it's true we need law and order democracies do depend on people respecting law and order and it's true that violence is never justified in fact it's true that violence is always counterproductive the side you think you're helping you're not helping it's also true that we need a system that everybody can trust but that's where the problem lies it's easy for me as a white guy to say trust the system because this usually worked for me law and order because it worked for me but if you're a member of the black community and and the system for 200 years first enslaved your people and then spent the next 150 years finding ways to keep them out of power and and keep them less than up to the 60s and that part is indisputable up through jim crow and redlining that's indisputable if you're part of that community well trusting can be a little bit more challenging and the bar of suspicion may be a little lower than it is for white folks who haven't encountered those kind of things and so it's in the brianna case there's there's questions that that that's raised suspicion there's enough questions about it i mean people are wondering like how is it that you can charge a police officer with endangering the neighbors of of others but no one is charged with the the shooting of brianna there's no accountability on that it's like almost like she was irrelevant to the case i'm not a lawyer i don't know the facts that's true i i don't know what the jury knows but for that reason i think we've got to understand why many people in the black community especially the mother of of this dear lady was killed while they're crying will you show us then the transcripts uh so that we we can understand how you came to this conclusion let's see we i never can understand events alone you have to understand the fire behind this event is related to the fire with george george floyd and many other fires before that so we have this incredible racial unrest going on right now how is it that yet again somehow the justice system didn't work for a person of color they were irrelevant to the crime they weren't even named in the indictment it's a question that right now is i think justifiably raising a lot of concern and unrest and then of course on top of the race matters we've got this pandemic this wonderful year the pandemic people are isolated and that's driving some people crazy it it hurts everybody but it's driving some people nuts i listen on this one radio program they interviewed this one young lady who's single and is and lives alone and and in tears they were talking about what's the effect of this been on you and she says i haven't touched another human being in seven months and you know it's it's it's causing all sorts of stress with all the you know the parents how you know the whole schooling issue and and and is it open is it halfway or what are we going to do about this and then it's reversed and they got to figure out work schedules and how we're going to make this how we handle all this and it's it's just a it's a stressor it's built in to make stress all they all they're crangling around sports these days now that gets politicized and the hostility over that it is it's just chaos and it results in absurd situations like some of you probably saw that video uh i guess it went viral i saw in the news the other night but this lady who would not wear a mask at a football game and she refused to even though she had a mask in her back pocket but uh they finally called security over and the guy ended up tasing her uh over a mask being charged with with with tr with trespassing because the sign says you have to wear a mask to come on here and okay so that i think was kind of silly but we're a mask for crying out loud but on the other hand i can kind of see why she would be irritated she's sitting alone and there's there's no one around her in the stands and she's watching get this a football game her son's football game out there running at each other you look at the front lines of a football game and those people every play are grunting at these other spinning ages they're hollering at each other it's a petri dish so don't worry it's just how can you allow one and then it's the inconsistency of the whole thing is driving some of us actually pretty crazy but but you know that's as ambassadors who are stationed in this land we've got to know that we are in a high stress situation the covet is everybody's a little more on edge okay a little bit more nasty uh our fuse is a little bit shorter and there's a lot of confusion going on that's storm number two and storm number three everyone's favorite politics don't we love it that's a storm so we have both sides now claiming that if the other side wins it's going to be the meltdown of america the end of america as we know it's going to be the veritable apocalypse and and you know they always use this you know hyperbolic rhetoric coming up to elections and but it's not like this this is i think unprecedented and i think because everyone means it and then we have the whole now the question of of of the integrity of absentee ballots and mail and voting and and all the hub of around that and and for the first time this has been raised where you know the specter of the possibility there won't be a peaceful transfer of power i think that's a that's got a lot of people nervous and each side suspects the other side is going to try to steal the election meanwhile hardly anyone so far as i can tell the news russia and china are just like not their big foes anymore we're so busy fighting at each other i don't know who's paying attention to that this is high stakes poker folks this is if in terms of democracy this is high stakes poker and then to add fuel to the flames we ruth boehner ginsburg died and uh and that's just a heartbreaking of itself this woman was such a courageous courageous consistent honorable advocate for the causes of of the disadvantaged and she and john lewis were the two people in congress in politics that i respected the most and they're just about the only two that i do respect and this year we've lost both of them one more thing that's wonderful about 2020 but of course now uh the republic republicans want to uh replace this uh supreme court and that's got the democrats up in arms like they would do something totally different if if the ball was in their court and it's just caused now a firestorm upon a firestorm the rhetoric is keeping it gets kicked keeps getting ratchet up and there's some people who are talking about picking up arms now in fact we've already got militias on the left and the right who are showing up a protest and that's a prescription for disaster but see what happens when groups get more and more polarized in their hostility towards one another what was once the most extreme version of themselves becomes normative and that's what's helping create this make this into a a perfect storm uh some of you maybe know rick joyner and when it comes to things like this i i am not afraid to name names because this is a person who's very public uh he's a pastor who's also positioned it positions himself as something of a prophet uh he's got a pretty very large following actually i actually read some of his stuff and listened to some of his tapes and went to a couple seminars and i i i i appreciate what he had to say back in the 90s i thought some things were a little eccentric yeah sure but but he i thought he had the heart of the gospel never saw anything about violence or hatred or hostility or anything like that i don't know what happened to brother joyner but this last week he called on christians to uh take up arms and make sure you have enough ammunition because it's time to declare war on the liberals that are destroying this this country not the rhetoric that we need not not helpful christians if you're just tuning in the will of hills for the first time i would advise you not to follow that teaching it's one of the biggest challenges we have as kingdom people is differentiating what we believe to be the core of the kingdom living in love as christ loved us and gave his life for us differentiating that from everything else that goes under that name and i'm going to say i don't believe that that is kingdom at all i think that is anti-kingdom so we got this political rest on top of the racial unrest on top of this pandemic three perfect storms coming together oh this added some unprecedented wildfires that are ripping up the west unprecedented historic i had read i think uh 330 some million acres of forest in california alone have been destroyed by this and thousands of of of houses and property and a number of lives it's just been unprecedented what could what else could possibly go wrong well i throw in some historic hurricanes we've had a hurricane season like never before where first time in our history we got all the way through the alphabet and now the english alphabet now they start naming them according to the greek alphabet and for the first time when the greek alphabet beta hit us uh of course that's polarized because everything's polarized so now we all did heavily beats about global warming and and whatnot and whatnot and whatnot folks uh we are we are i i mean this i don't i don't be alarmist but it feels like we're we're verging on a perfect storm um or to change the analogy we're on a powder keg and it would just take the right match to blow this whole thing up and there's no guarantee that that won't happen i hope that won't happen i i don't expect that to happen but i also know that every time something like this has happened in history people were mostly surprised i didn't think this could have possibly happened so the question then is this given this is the lay of the land that we at least who are in america are stationed in all of you have to apply it to your own countries i don't know how it textualize it according to where where you live but in america here we are living in this unprecedented time it's absolutely surrealistic it's crazy it it's it's and it's the question i want to ask is how do we as kingdom people respond to that how do we conduct ourselves in the midst of this and so there's three things i want to say the first is paul tells us the apostle paul says that we're not to be living as those who have no hope because we've got a hope we know where our hope lies and that should affect the way we conduct ourselves in the middle of what seems like a hopeless storm see if your hope is in america or if your ultimate hope is in the democratic party the republican party or the libertarian party or this policy or that policy or this candidate or that candidate the degree that uh that's where your treasure is that's where your heart is and and right now i'm betting you're kind of mad you're kind of angry you're kind of frustrated you're scared maybe because those things are not good things to put on put hope in and as kingdom people we remind ourselves about this all the time because it's so important but nations have always risen that nation's fall that's just what the nations of this oppressed world do and political parties they're good sometimes then they get corrupt then maybe they get reformed they need to corrupt that see-saw that's just how it goes it's a merry-go-round we know that our hope is not in something that changes nothing something that can be voted on that's something that you have to fight over now our hope is found in nothing less than jesus christ and his righteousness our hope is in the coming kingdom of god our hope is in his promise that when all this is said and done the glory of what will be in when the kingdom is fully come can't even be compared to the struggles and the pain and the woes and the evil of this present world you think you think this perfect storm is bad well it is terrible terrible bad but it's nothing compared to the glory which god has in store for those who are walking in this kingdom way we're furthering his kingdom our job is to be laying down the preparing the way of the lord laid on the runway strip for the lord to return and we do that by all of our kingdom works we're kind of the dress rehearsal for this but we know that when the time is right his promise is that he will return and set up his kingdom in fullness and if you want my opinion the sooner the better uh but that that's where our hope is now we do good in the city now the bible tells us do good to the city that you in which you find yourself and and so we live off the kingdom now we care about the coming against homelessness and and racism and hunger and all the other things that besiege people we come against that now we do as much as possible now but we've also got to know that this world's not going to be said totally right not by a long shot until jesus christ returns that's where hope is and maybe one silver lining in this year of 2020 is that i think it makes having that hope all the more easier because it's all the more clear that there is nothing else to hope in put all your hope in jesus christ and i encourage you to drink in this season drink deeply from that hope i mean really let it benefit you it's one of your kingdom inheritances spend some time envisioning imagining and asking the spirit to help you envision how great it will be when that kingdom comes and enter into that and just kind of imagine that as good as you can make it as beautiful as possible because however beautiful you're imagining it it's going to be way way way better than that but it will do your heart good see that this is the essence of faith uh in hebrews 11 it tells us that faith is the substantiating of things that we hope for producing a conviction of things that we don't yet see when you imagine it concretely as a substantial reality that's what he means by substantiating when you imagine it as a concrete reality it creates a conviction in you that yes it's so it will be so and that alters your state of being it can give you that peace that passes understanding when you really believe that that hope shall come through when you're living and thinking as though that hope shall come true it can really affect how you carry yourself it can it can give you that peace that passes understanding and in a world that is is just going in total chaos spinning in circles and chaos if you can walk with that sense of peace that itself is a profound kingdom witness no way your hope lies number two keep your eye on the ball i go to a lot of my gran grant that's that i still taste that stupid stuff uh i go to my grandkids softball games and and that's always our slogan keep your eye on the ball keep your eye on the ball watch it watch it till it meets that bat don't get distracted in other words and that's a word that i think that we need to hear in this season then which we find ourselves remember and never forget that you are an ambassador here on assignment your job is to represent the character of the king the character of the kingdom by what we say about what we do that's the ball okay that keep your eye on that ball ephesians 5 live in love as christ loved us and gave his life for us that's the ball proclaim the good news be good news manifest what jesus is like so here's the thing our everything about us can change but that call always remains the same to live and love as christ loved us and gave his life for us it doesn't matter whether you're in good circumstances or bad circumstances where things are going well or not so well it doesn't matter what country you live in whether it's democratic and free or in north korea it doesn't matter whether you're white black hispanic latino doesn't matter what your political opinions may be with this chaos around us be careful not to get distracted don't get pulled into it keep your eye on the ball live in love you know jesus actually modeled how to do this and and that's how i'll say that for next week because that's how we're going to launch off this series that we're beginning our house divided and i encourage you to to be part of that series but the essence of what he did and this brings me to the third point i want to make the essence of what he did is he resisted the powers he resisted the powers because all kingdom living requires resisting the powers the apostle paul tells us in ephesians 6 that our struggle is not against enemies of flesh and blood but it's against the rulers and the authorities and against the cosmic powers of this present darkness boy does it feel like a present darkness huh and folks winter is coming winter's coming we fight against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places that's where real foe is our struggle's not against flesh and blood in fact not only are we not supposed to be fighting flesh and blood but if it's flesh and blood if it's a human being it's someone that we're supposed to be fighting for and we fight for them by refusing to not love them regardless of what we might see in them or think about them we're not allowed to ever not love them that's how we prepare the way of the lord that's how we demonstrate the kingdom but our battles against the powers because see the powers they're always trying to get us to have flesh and blood battles because if we're shooting at each other we're not shooting at them if we're shooting at each other we're playing into their strategy this is their design they come only to kill steal and destroy they they would love to destroy humanity and their plot is to turn us against each other so we kill off so we'll eventually kill off one another in the name of our righteousness that's their strategy and all the indications as you look around this country right now it seems like they're having something of a field day because we see flesh and blood struggles all over the place you want to know where the powers are most at work where are the flesh and blood struggles those are the people who are being played they're having a field day so as we look at this world right now this this divis divided world we have to see more than what the ordinary person sees this isn't just a struggle of flesh and blood it's not just about people who who believe different things it's not just about the the democrats republican the left and the right fighting and people arguing over global warming or systemic racism it's not just about those things it involves those things but behind that there are powers at work now god's also at work okay so he's always working for them for the best but there are powers that work and we've got to be able to see that and there are people who are being played these powers right now they have a powerful powerful powerful weapon perhaps the most powerful weapon they've ever had and that is the internet you want to turn people against each other the internet for all the good it can do and i'm not here to demonize the internet but it's it has a potential for great good and therefore has a potential for great evil and the enemy is using it for evil because people get siloed in their little echo chambers and only talk to people who who think like them they only get the version of reality that that agrees with them and so their brains get hardened their categories get hardened and eventually you'll lose the capacity to understand a different point of view if you're not regularly encountering and docking with the other point of view you'll lose the capacity to understand them or even want to understand them and now things become obvious to you and to your group this is obvious weird it's so obvious that we are right it's not even worth talking to those folks because if it's obvious that we're right well then it's obvious they're wrong and so they can't be holding that belief because they really think it's true they have all their motives or maybe they're just stupid but either way they don't deserve to be talked with or reasoned with dialogued with no they're deplorable they're disgusting you know no what they need to be is silenced what they need to be is defeated and certain cultural context what they need to be is killed because if you're not willing to talk to another human being as though they're a human being and reason with them the only alternative is war or short of that imprisonment silence people are being played by the powers as kingdom ambassadors listen to this folks as kingdom ambassadors we have to covenant together that we will not be played we will not be played and these polarizing forces have got a lot of power right now and there's a suction if you're sensitive to it you can feel it if you're not careful you get sucked into it but we have to resolve we will not be played we will resist the work of the powers will resist being sucked into any narrative that's at least in part defined by its animosity towards the other side it's hatred towards the other side keep your eye on the ball we're not allowed to ever adopt that mindset we're to live in love as christ loved us and gave his life for us and now i think we can begin to understand why jesus followers should expect some kind of persecution or at least to be spoken evil about because see to the degree that people and individuals and people groups have been polarized sucked into their own silo to that degree they adopt an us versus their mindset which means part of their us is defined by the against them mindset and to that degree of course they feel righteous over against that other group which is becoming increasingly evil and to the degree that it gets sucked deeper and deeper into their silos they see the world in just black and white categories we're 100 right and they're 100 wrong and see at that point folks when people get sucked in that deeply now when you look at people who oppose you you don't even see people what you see is the enemy when you see the label what you see is the category and what you're really seeing is a judgment you're not seeing the people as individuals you're seeing categories but see the call to love means we can't ever see people as categories we can't ever see them as as the real enemy we can't ever see them as people that are not worth talking to um this is where cancer culture comes from you can have about say a hundred right with things but see the deeper a group gets in there it is us versus the mindset the more becomes important to them that you have absolute conformity and and if you're not forced and you can be against us and so now if you walking and walking in the way of love living in love seeing people in terms of love when you see that those people are actually people uh and that they have their own they're human just like you are and they have their own trials just like you do and and and you begin to see that maybe they're not all together evil maybe they've got some good points maybe there's something you might learn from them you talk like that and you might find yourself censored why because you're ruining the party to the degree that groups get sucked into this us versus them mindset they feed off the contrast that's what judgment does and it feels righteous to talk about how bad they are how stupid they are ignorant they are that's part of the buzz that's that's the righteousness buzz we've talked about you come along and say well you know there are some good points you're sucking the energy out of the room you're a killjoy you're a party spoiler if you're not forced you must be against this and now you can become part of the enemy see jesus said that we're to love like the father loves we're to love like the rain falls we're the love like the the the sun shines we're to love indiscriminately we don't get to pick and choose who we love in fact jesus says love like this matthew 5 44-45 love like this that you may be children of your father in heaven that's the criteria that he provides for us that you may be this is how we manifest that we're children of the father in heaven because we can love in a way that the world can't love but we can only love that way if we're resisting the pull of the polarizing powers that are always trying to get us to turn on flesh and blood and so if you're in this kind of context where you're living out this call of love you're gonna you're gonna contrast it possibly with anybody the call to love involves describing unsurpassable worth to that person because you know jesus died for them and that and your job is to to reflect that agreement by by your attitude towards them which means the attitude isn't just deplorable you may think they think their views are deplorable but they deserve respect they may you may profoundly disagree with them you may find think that their their views are deplorable you may think that they're the problem with america you may identify them as dangerous maybe they even threaten you maybe they even threaten your loved ones and i'm i'm not saying you can't argue with your case and and put forth your case absolutely you can and sometimes we must but we've got to do it in love that's never negotiable do everything in love first corinthians 16 14 everything in love even debating the most difficult topics where manifesting love would be the most difficult but that's what we're called to do and see in a world where there's polarizing powers sucking people in on the us versus to them in a world that's getting increasingly all or nothing thinking all black and white thinking where if you're not forced you're against us if you're walking in the way of love and not being fully identified with either group well you might just find yourself becoming the enemy of everybody you're not a force we thought you were but you're against us and uh you must be silenced not reasoned with you must be canceled you must be defeated and in certain cultural contexts you must be killed so why was jesus persecuted because he didn't he didn't conform to any of the austin polarities he just didn't buy into their narratives his his narrative intersected at points with theirs and so does our kingdom narrative but he never let himself get get pulled into those hostile powers into those silos into those groups that are defined by their animosity towards others so for example jesus as a real jews the assumption went by and large in the first century that real jews you just know that because you're a jew you despise gentiles and you despise those half-breed samaritans sumerians and and you especially despise the romans you don't reason with them talk with them no you try to defeat them that's what it means to be for many people he's a first century jew but see jesus was jewish but he refused to do that he refused to ever not love someone so he was branded a traitor and crucified he didn't conform to any of the or at least many of their important distinctions uh you know if you're a good jew you don't hang out with prostitutes that's the kind goes especially if you're a rabbi especially you're claiming to be the messiah you don't hang out with prostitutes and tax collectors there's rules about that social taboos for crying out loud but jesus refused not to love he hung out with him he befriended them you're not supposed to be hanging out with the the low lives who are are they on the outside the the the sick and the disease those are people who are being judged by god that's what everyone assumes at the time now you if you're hanging out with them then you're part of the problem not the solution but jesus refused to ever not love and so he hung out with these people and ministered to them and demonstrated god's love to them by bringing freedom and healing into their life he was jewish but he didn't buy into that jewish us versus them and narrative he didn't buy into this if you're not for me you're against me he was rather the victim of it he was considered an oddball doesn't think the way we're supposed to think doesn't act the way we're supposed to act and therefore he must be silenced he must be put to death see jesus said that if they do it to the master they'll do it to the servant because the servant is never above the master and so he anticipated his followers would be persecuted for the very same reason that he was persecuted they won't they they won't get sucked into the us versus them polarities so they the early church was mostly in rome but they were never part of the roman us they never got on board with the roman narrative if you're a good roman well then of course you hate our enemies in fact if you're a good roman and you're able-bodied then you should go out there and help us fight those enemies but the christians refused not to love they refused they refused to ever be played by the powers they wouldn't give in to that and so some saw them as being unpatriotic as being disloyal as being subversive if you're a good roman you're supposed to attend the festivals that celebrate the goodness of rome and especially celebrate the victories of rome and that's when they march in all the prisoners and and feed them the lions and have their festivities or whatever but the christians said no thanks because we're not allowed to hate anybody in fact we pray for those people that you are feeding to lions they just weren't good they they're they're party kills they suck the air out of the room there's no fun you gotta hate the ones we hate if you're gonna be part of our club you're supposed to pledge allegiance to the emperor just by not in your head when you pass the statue in some areas or letting a little bit incense or doing some meaningless thing no one cared whether you believe that just do it so you're it's your way of acknowledging yeah you're part of the us you're part of the crowd and they wouldn't do it they wouldn't do it because their lord was jesus christ and we can't compromise by pledging allegiance to any other so they were never fully part of rome roman citizens yes but they never brought in the us because they never bought into them because they're living in a kingdom narrative that is its own us but that has no them the kingdom narrative hasn't us but it doesn't exclude it doesn't oppose it we're no it's all-inclusive because our attitude towards all is love and embracing and serving it's never do we buy into the hostility there and that gets you in trouble with everybody and that's how it's been throughout history christians have just been those who are the most faithful to the call of the kingdom have been the most persecuted because they just don't fit anyone's us not fully so today i i this surprised me i i uh the other well preparing for this message i found out that on this one uh minister i guess it is called open doors usa they monitor christians being persecuted you find throughout history christians have been being persecuted um it's still going on to this day so today uh on average they say as of 2019 on average eight christians are martyred a day on this planet on average every week 122 church edifices either church buildings or religious organization buildings whatever are attacked and every month on average 309 christians are falsely imprisoned and unjustly imprisoned often times for life they die there right now there are 260 over 260 million christians who are living in moderate to severe persecuted circumstances where they have to fear either for their freedom or for their life uh north korea here are the top ones that countries they listed afghanistan somalia pakistan sudan iran china and the list goes on you know it's it's pretty obvious that america's got some faults some deep faults but let's never lose our gratitude for the fact that this country allows me to do this and without fear of something happening in my kids uh we're blessed we're blessed to have the freedom to do to do without right now at least things can change quickly but right now to be able to we carry out our distinct kingdom call without fearing for our lives uh and and and that's a blessing that that our this constitution gives us we should never take that for granted so why was jesus persecuted same reason why were the early church persecuted for the same reason they were not part of anyone's us they wouldn't conform to the thinking fully and see here's the thing if we are consistent and faithful to our calling as the kingdom we can't fit in fully either we can no more fit in easily with the american us than the early christians could with the roman us the fact that our us is nicer doesn't change what our our relationship with it should be we can't conform to any of the us's not fully insofar as the us's are premised on against them insofar as they're premised on hostility we can't buy into that so we're yeah we we benefit a lot by being here in this country but uh and and there's a lot of stuff that we would say yes that that we can get on board with that but there's a lot of stuff we can't get on board with to be part of the us of america is you're supposed to also be against the them of america and you're supposed to support its military victories and support it's whatever it's doing and and see well we know nations are going to do that we're not trying to run the world say what's yeah whatever but we can't get on board with any killing we can't get on board with any violence we can't that can't be part of our us there's other things as well being part of the us of america we can't buy into its consumerism we can't buy into its materialism we can't buy into its individualism we can't do it by buy into its it's sexual exploitation using sex as a way of selling things objectifying the bodies of women we can't buy into its racism we can't fully identify it as us yeah we're here we're in the world but we're not of this world and if you hold that view you may find yourself being accused of being unpatriotic i can tell you from experience you can be cut off you can be silenced you'd be disinvited places uh because you just aren't on board with the us of america see as as as ambassadors of the distinct kingdom and ruled by his distinct king we can never fully identify with the us of america or of the democratic party or the republican party or the libertarian party or any party you might name or any cause that you might name if that if that cause involves hostility towards the other seeing people to some degree as a category rather than as individual people we've got to keep our eye on the ball and therefore resist that diabolical pull now in america you know living in love it probably is not going to get you killed but it might people may spike speech seek evil of you they may make up lies about you you may find yourself getting canceled you may find yourself getting canceled from all sides jesus says if that happens if that happens rejoice and that's easier said than done if the ones who are rejecting you maybe are people that you've loved and been friends with for a long time or whatever there's a cost to pay and jesus said there would be he says rejoice because that means you're on that road that's headed towards blessedness that's why these are beatitudes they're the signposts that tell you you're on the right road if you're if you're popular with everybody or even just popular with one group that has that animosity in it well that's cause to be concerned we're not running for office we're not supposed to be trying to be popular we're supposed to be faithful and that can make us very unpopular and if that happens rejoice in that because it means you're going in the right direction you're doing something right so folks we're in this we're in this middle of the storm and um who knows what's gonna happen in four or five weeks in this situation have your hope all your hope found in jesus christ and his coming kingdom and dream dreams about that let that minister life to you let there be a lifeline as you go through the season in this season which we are in keep your eye on that ball the ball is the mission of the kingdom of god summed up by saying live and love us christ loved us and gave his life for us that's the bullseye and that bullseye never changes things may get really good around here things may go really bad that never changes keep your eye on the ball and doing that you resist the pull of the powers is this to pull the powers and they can be subtle often you'll find that you have if you're if you're introspective and love the holy spirit be speaking to you you may find you wake up to the fact that you have already been played that happens to me i'm being played and you'll know you're being played because you're starting to hate the other side those yeah you're starting to take on that attitude our attitude is to be the attitude of jesus christ who though he was in the form of god didn't grasp onto that as though he was equal with god but he emptied it out all out for our sake and he made himself of no reputation and became a human being became one of us came to come in the form of a servant that's the attitude of jesus christ and it was obedient to the point of death that's the attitude of jesus christ that's the attitude of the kingdom lord i pray that as we go about our weeks now as we now separate to go out in this world that is so full of hostility and polarities and judgments and violence help us to be the peacemakers by how we live help us to be bearers of the peace that passes understanding to offer that to other folks help us to keep the eye on the ball help us to be strong and courageous in what is right doing everything in love in jesus name amen god bless you guys we love you we love you i commission you to go out and build the kingdom keep you on the ball god bless you

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Length: 77min 4sec (4624 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 27 2020