Rob Bell - Beginning in the Beginning - Poets/Prophets/Preachers

[Music] what I'm interested in is the thing behind the thing behind the thing the thing under the thing under the thing under the thing that I think deeply shapes um things up at the surface and so when you've sat there and you've heard something you thought we people use words they use words like it worked it was relevant it was inspiring it felt like it was really condemning it felt heavy it didn't whatever I think that sometimes some of the language that we use at sort of an emotive level there are actually reasons why certain Communications affected us a certain way and others didn't why certain ways in which a person spoke led us into a certain kind of worldview that took us higher and did something to us and opened us up and and other things see to take us down a different route I think there's some things behind the things behind the things that may affect that this is my premise where and how you begin the story and where and how you end the story shape and determine what story you're telling and and I'm looking at the big big big story because we communicate preach teach and sermonize a word we made up just for this weekend um we sermonize out of whatever we think is the big big deep uh story that kind of undergirds and underpins the whole thing so let's begin in the beginning always an excellent place to start and let me just um and for many of you this would be like maybe like review or whatever and I I assume many of you will be like okay okay get to it get to it get to it um but I think it's always helpful to go back through um the the basic um Genesis 1 God said let the land produce vegetation in a culture where it was common to worship the creation you have a poem The Bible begins with in which the Creator endows the creation so they're distinct the creation isn't to be worshiped there is a creator that is distinct from the creation an absolutely mind-bending radical idea in this day and the creation has been endowed with the by the Creator with the ability to make more itself um the word Dasha is where we get the word is the word produce or to sprout um there is a progressive generativity the the creation is going somewhere it's been given the ability to make more it isn't just God creates trees it's trees come into being that have the ability with they are empowered and endowed with the ability within themselves to make more trees they are given this by the Creator um creation is going somewhere it is dynamic not static tomorrow will be different than today so with the word Dasha what you have is it's going to grow it's going to produce it's headed somewhere and these first people find themselves in the midst of something that is going to need to be guided and directed and managed and steed but tomorrow it will have grown a bit more and a more and more and produced more in Genesis 1 of verse 26 and 27 so that they may rule um that they may fill the Earth and subdue it the the word rule is the word Rada and the word subdue is the word kabash let me hear say kabash it's a word regarding responsibility and stewardship it is this thing is headed somewhere and these humans are placed in the middle of it and their task is to properly order it guide it um and it is to provide for them but they are not to use it or exploit it in such a way that it cannot continue to provide for them um there is a participatory physicality Genesis 1 and 2 is it's material it's trees it's fruit it's air it's water it's soil there is a a physical particip ation that is at the center of the human calling participating with the Creator co-creators in taking this somewhere there is a Harmony that is intended but is a Harmony within hierarchy there is a strong hierarchy based on there is a Creator this creator creates a creation and then these people are placed over creation this man and woman these equals these co-creators then have responsibility for creation so there is if they at any point try and be God that's not going to work if at any point they worship the creation that's not going to work there is a Harmony but it comes from everything in its proper place to quote radio head and it's Central to the poem everything in its proper place the appropriate ordering of of creation and then there's a word that's used uh several times next in verse 28 and and earlier in verse 22 and God blessed it the word Baraka or Baro or it's word bless soil and spirit are united Heaven and Earth are one in Genesis 1 and2 there isn't somewhere else like if we could just someday get out of here then some glad morning all Fly Away in Genesis 1 and two there isn't somewhere else the action is here are you with me this is very very very important soil and spirit are united it isn't soil blood dirt food sex trees soil air and then there is a realm of the spirit in some other place and if you can just leave this and go there you will have ascended to a higher state in Genesis 1 and 2 it's all blessed holy and sacred this is how the story Starts Now a couple things whatever it is that you and I that we love about life is all right here in Genesis 1 and 2 Aesthetics Beauty the appreciation of form making things relationship partnership worship exploration organizing naming learning responsibility whatever it is that you love to do I guarantee you can trace its Primal impulse it's most Core Essence to something that you already find in Genesis 1 and 2 people say you know I just I love to like work and I have a shop and I make things out of wood of course it's taking creation it's ordering it it's doing something with it well we have this Co-op and we get from a couple of these organic farms and we organize it so people at at an affordable rate can get really great fresh organic produce of course of course music poetry I just like to work in my backyard i' I've landscaped it three different ways this year already just love it I love the feeling of the dirt under my fingernails don't talk about you um I love the feeling of I love that green line I get around the base of my shoes I'm mowing lawn yeah of course of course of course of course yeah it's all right here often times you can evoke out of people what is it that when you do it you think man I could do this forever what is it that when you do it you lose track of time and often I discovered when you start evoking these sort of questions and responses out of people and asking questions often times they'll say okay well actually I kind of am ashamed of this but you know what I really love to do and then they'll share something and it's like this beautiful pure sort of but it's not practical or you can't make a living doing it or whatever it is and how many of you know exactly what I'm I'm talking about and they'll kind of sheepish you know and sometimes you're like you know yeah yeah you're right that's that that one's a little weird but nonetheless we Embrace every everything um I just like playing the triangle I don't know what it is and I well you know we each have our part but um body's made up of many parts but um the story Starts Here the story starts here now let's uh go to the end of the Bible Revelation 21 and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying look God's dwelling place is now among the people no more death River of the Water of Life the city the Tree of Life healing of the Nations I am making everything new so the ending is really another sort of beginning but anyway um the ending of the story is here the story ends here and the descriptions of the end of the story are very physical and participatory they will re a call back almost to the radang kabash the the rule and and creatively order and and manage and sustain they will participate in the ongoing ordering of creation the story Starts Here the story ends here and the descriptions that are given is uh rivers and trees for the healing of the Nations everything in its proper place a city it's all very physical um when John when when John uses the language of new Heaven and new earth and all that if that's actually a quote from Isaiah Isaiah talked about how will plant Vineyards it's all rooted literally in the earth here in Revelation 21 and2 where where the the story ends the story ends here and and at that point there isn't somewhere else because God is here dwelling with us oh by the way if you were to take sin out of the Bible you would have a pamphlet but it would have four chapters in this pamphlet a if actually if you remove Sin from the Bible you would have a short book Genesis 1 and 2 Revelation 21 and 22 mhm and if you were to place them you would even then realize that it starts with a garden and it ends with a city and what is a city it's a lot of well organized Gardens so even if you remove uh Sin from the scripture you still have a movement why because in Genesis 1 and 2 it's not static it's Dynamic it's going somewhere and left to go somewhere these Gardens and the proper oring ordering of these Gardens lead to a city filled with properly ordered harmonious Gardens leading up to a city so even then you have a movement we'll come back to this idea of dynamic versus static this idea of soil and and spirit Heaven and Earth United there isn't we'll keep coming back to this but we have to make sure when we look at the story story Starts Here the story ends here now let's back up Genesis 3 then what you have is the disruption of Shalom there is a Shalom the Hebrew word for wholeness peace well-being Health Genesis 1 and 2 is a beautiful picture of Shalom there are several Dimensions to the Shalom there is peace health wholeness between the created between people and their creator between people and other people uh people with themselves they're comfortable in their own skin literally and then there is proper Shalom with the soil with the Earth proper Earth care should we say so you have these mult multiple dimensions of Shalom what you have then with the with sin entering the story is you have a disruption of Shalom and so maybe one of the ways you could you could Define sin is any way in which I am guilty of disrupting Shalom God God intends the world to be a certain way what are the ways in which I have participated in disrup ing that Shalom with my neighbor with the Earth with my Creator so then also another way you can see it and and I'm sure you have many other ways of looking at this but maybe one of the ways is we could just simply say sin then is rebellion against the hierarchy if there's a Harmony within hierarchy their place is here God's place is here Earth's place is here then then one of the ways maybe you can understand sin is simply it is rebellion I don't like the way it's arranged um it's saying to God you're in my seat sin then would be any way in which we rebel against the hierarchy which has been placed there an addiction to a substance of some sort when we begin to look to the physical to meet certain needs that only God can meet we are then rebelling against the hierarchy because we were looking to the Earth to give what only so we are essentially we have the hierarchy out of whack it's rebelling against the hierarchy another way you can say it is simply participation if death enters the story in Genesis 3 then and if if Dynamic not static is the way in which we understand the story then what ways have I participated in the order of death in the old order in the way that isn't the way of God it's my active participation in something other than taking creation and a proper direction and then and one um Hebrew definition of is an archery term missing the mark so it is this there is this beautiful beautiful picture we are given in this poem Genesis 1 and the narrative in Genesis 2 and sin would be missing missing this beautiful picture now story Starts Here story ends here Genesis 3 is not how the story begins and Genesis 3 is not how the story ends so when we tell the story we want to make sure that the disruption the Rebellion the participation in the old order we make want to make sure that in telling the story we tell the story how it begins how it is and how it ends but the sin part has to take its proper place in the larger story and within the larger story sin depravity and the Fallen nature of people is in some ways a temporary sort of thing at some in some ways we need to make sure that it has it's taken seriously but it also takes its proper place in the story which is a Jesus who does away with the death are you with me so part of it is making sure we get all the parts properly aligned uh now uh confession yadha that would be my admission my recognition a declaration my agreement that I have participated in the way of death that I have rebelled that I have disrupted uh confession actually Con in G um in English con with fess like fess up to say so it's to say with um and then repentance the Hebrew word toua it means to turn or to return the the Hebrew concept of repentance is I have veered off course and I am invited to return is that a great repentance would be calling people to repent then is and if you understand as return you were created by a God who loves you this God created you in this God's image you were created to be a co-creator you've been crowned with glory and honor and the God who makes you invites you to return to your proper place within creation nice huh that's gets it's once again it it's Dynamic it's active it's participation youve participated in this and the invitation is to return to proper participation in a creation that's headed somewhere and we're given this task of properly managing and order it coming alongside of it helping guide it in a path that brings to increased Shalom now the story is about God then the gospel story in Matthew 19 Jesus talks about the renewal of all things the story is about God renewing all things in Acts three Peter talks about he will return to restore all things the restoring of all things uh Paul talks in Colossians 1 about the reconciling of all things and by the way that phrase all things at T panta in the Greek it translates literally all things like it's um it isn't like oh but he means no it it's all things of course that raises a whole stack of questions nevertheless let's just keep it at this level here the story is about the renewing of all things the restoring of all things Jesus Peter Paul restoring all things reconciling all things story starts here and the story ends here now uh okay things are about to get very interesting if the story that you are telling begins in Genesis 3 then the central issue is the removal of sin if your story that you are telling begins in Genesis 3 then the fundamental we got a problem here and so the problem the drive of your story then is getting rid of this problem and so whatever savior Messiah whatever Solutions you present if you begin in Genesis 3 we'll be centered around we got to get rid of this problem and I got a way to show you how to get rid of this problem if you begin in Genesis 3 the central issue is removal of sin if you begin in Genesis 1 the central issue is the restoration of [Music] Shalom are we does this make sense if I'm listening to you tell the story I am going to quickly pick up and and this is this is one of one kind of one of my central arguments people may not have theological language they may not have technical language they may not be very articulate but but I would argue the average person listening to the average sermon begins to pick up a larger story whether you other claim to be telling a larger story from the bits and pieces you give them they will be creating some sort of framework and if it begins in Genesis 3 they will pick up after a while that the central deal is getting rid of sin that people pick this stuff up does that make sense they like catch it they smell it um the removal of sin if you start in one then the story is about the restoration of Shalom and if you begin in one the removal of sin obviously is a central dimension of the restoration of Shalom but it takes its proper place within the larger story that you are telling okay here we go if you begin in Genesis 3 then your central story is telling people what you aren't if you begin in Genesis 1 perhaps you begin with what you are an evangelism method that begins with we need to go out on the street and convince people that they're sinners is driven by a particular understanding of what the story is and I would submit to you that it might be beginning a bit late in the story and it's always good to begin in the beginning let me paint you a picture of the world God created for us to inhabit and it's good and it was good and it was good and it was good perhaps when you begin in Genesis 1 you paint a beautiful picture perhaps then in the backdrop with the backdrop of this big beautiful compelling picture of what it means to be human perhaps then sin makes a whole lot more sense oh yeah I I get disruption of Shalom you don't have to convince me in my role in that but if I cold call you if I walk up to you on the street okay just want to talk about you you're an Abomination man I just got a raise I was feeling pretty sweet until now and that's your good news what's your bad news uh that was funny to me um oh oh oh oh if you begin in Genesis 3 then your fundamental impulse is going to be disembodied evacuation then is going to be the goal this place is really jacked up but someday we'll get out of here let me tell you how because see if if what if you begin in Genesis 3 it is very easy if that is the fundamental filter through which you hear the story it is very easy then to begin to see the materiality of creation as Fallen but the materiality soil wine air is not Fallen materiality is not the issue Rebellion is the issue the posture of the human heart and participation in ways that disrupt Shalom is what's going on here and it is very easy if you have only heard it beginning in Genesis 3 to begin to see the wood soil wine air as fundamentally flawed when it in fact is the way in which the world is made and God begins with it is are we preaching yet see and and for many of you it's like okay okay okay get to something new but I think that what happens is people pick people over time they pick this up I think actually the what you are and what you aren't and what you are I think this is when people say I went to that church but I just I I walked out of there feeling beaten up anybody ever heard that one I I it's like I don't need once a week to to hear how terrible I am and then the flip said well you know what we tell people the truth and people are sinners and people have to take ownership of that but but but I've heard lots of people very clearly and compellingly articulate the ways in which we've disrupted Shalom and it actually provided the kind kind of space where it of course I own up to that repentance and confession yeah of course I want to be a part of that and of course I'll own up to my part in that that that's so beautiful of course I've disrupted that I I'll gladly own up to but when you begin in Genesis 3 it puts me what do you mean what do you mean what do you mean now disembodied evacuation then or participatory physicality is this story ultimately about getting you out of here or about proper participation with our creator in the ongoing creation of the world bringing increased Shalom to the world that is our home that God said is good if Underneath It All the preacher that you're listening to believes when all is said and done if you really really really pushed her on exactly what she story she's telling if Underneath It All like this level this level down here somewhere if you she what is it really if she truly believes that the action is ultimately somewhere else I'm going to pick that up after a while how many of you have heard a a teaching that was great and then at the end out of nowhere two minutes was tagged on in which you were taught what you need to do to get out of here how many of you know what I'm talk and and you're like what so what was that thing on the front end that's like a really long intro that has really nothing to do apparently or have you heard something that was very very powerful and somebody critiqued it by saying but they didn't give the gospel and as you begin to probe what exactly that meant it was but we weren't told how to evacuate this place with our soul how many of you know exactly what I'm talking about the problem is that's not how the story begins and that's not how the story ends and I get concerned that there are folks who will be on the way up somewhere well God is coming down and they'll pass in the air be like home where where where are you going oh man okay John does a very interesting thing in John Chapter 2 John talks about Jesus turning water into wine and then he says this was his first sign then a little while later in John 4 Jesus heals the official son and John says this was the second sign and then partway through he uses the word sign but he stops numbering them he's like I it's it's like I think it's four or five I'm not sure um if you actually count when Jesus does what John kind of categorizes as a sign you end up with water and wine one official Sun two at the pool three the turning the um the bread four water five walking at Water five heals a blind man six and then in John 11 he raises a man from the dead which is the seventh sign and John he it's almost like they're like blinking lights like by the way have you noticed that the raising of the Dead is the seventh one H seven in Jewish Consciousness is a number most closely associated with what creation remember that uh um for a good Jew everything means something else seven would have been a number that would have jumped out and the signs build we start with wine but by the seventh man we're raising man something from the dead and so when Jesus is resurrected that would be the eighth sign well if seven refers to the the first week of creation then what would an e sign be the first day of a new creation wow I actually um I talked about this somewhere else I and and Mary doesn't recognize Jesus and thinks he's a Garder that if there ever the actual Greek there is parentheses wink wink nudge nudge there's a new creation the old creation had a death problem the new creation doesn't the resurrection inaugurates a new creation first seven days are down this is an eighth day it's a Monday but it's a different kind of Monday maybe you say it this way the story is about Jesus resurrection beginning a new creation right here in the midst of this one so when we preach the resurrection at the center of everything is a belief that something big is going down and it's happening right here in the midst of the old creation Now the implications of this are just endless but uh let just a couple more um the story of Jesus resurrection is about God reaffirming the goodness of creation we're free to enjoy it because it's good we're free to take part in participatory physicality ordering it managing it steering it directing it guiding it embracing it because the resurrection is God or reaffirming or affirming or just reminding us that God never stopped affirming creation however you you want to the goodness of creation death that has Stained and corrupted creation at at all sorts of levels Underneath It All when God made the world God said it is good and God intends to restore it renew it and reconcile it and God is looking for partners because the reality at its core it's not static but Dynamic it's got up to how can I be a part of it now now the story is about anticipating the coming Day When Heaven and Earth are one again parentheses Heaven is where God is storing the Earth's future the story starts here and ends here the story starts Heaven and Earth are one there is no other place what death has done is essentially sort of a sort of splitting of the Realms this is why Paul says well if I die right now I'll I'll be with Christ of course wherever that is or however that is there's a bit of discussion but nevertheless Paul's assumption and Assurance is if I die right now I will be with Christ but the story wherever that is is about there and here coming back together so ultimately when you're here there is no there correct so the story is about anticipating the coming Day When Heaven and Earth are one again by the way when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray your your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven live now an anticipation of what God is intending to do for all of creation so then he talks about eternal life is now he talks about the life of Heaven here stepping into eternal life now properly participating with God now in such a way that the way that you are living could go on forever now uh Heaven is where God is storing the Earth New Year I love that um that'd be a sweet bumper sticker people be like what now uh now let's uh the implications of this obviously I'm sure for you you're already like oh my goodness let me just suggest maybe a couple things that that I think are important and and obviously this is no sort of last word but hopefully maybe this can start some first words business business is the exchange of goods fair price for a fair product business in our world investment brokery trading clothes food Transportation all of us in this exchange involving work wage and things that we need is actually rooted in a common good everybody having what they need so somebody in business is taking part if the key idea in creation is it Dasha it produces and Sprouts well it produces and Sprouts things from which we make food from which we make clothing from which we make houses from which we make books business is very the Earth produces and then we take it and hopefully properly order it and use it to further Shalom as we all live together by the way there are lots of there's a new movement among businesses called triple bottom line and triple bottom line is uh and there's some Christians who are really spearheading a movement of going to businesses and saying what if you had a triple bottom line not just profit but how your business affects the environment and how your business affects people essentially chrisan say what does it look like to think in terms of Shalom with your business which I think is brilliant how how can which is essentially saying how can you as Genesis 1 and two is about the proper ordering of creation business is a vital necessary task a holy sacred calling of helping organize manage Steward order creation if your Story begins in Genesis 1 and two if your Story begins in Genesis 3 what can often happen is a two- tiered system develops you're a business person you make money well I've been called into full-time Ministry because the Earth is fundamentally suspect but there is a higher you work with soil I work with Spirit soil is here spirit is here I have been called and what I do is help people escape soil I give them what they need to disengage from because the real action is here are you with me so what happens for the businesswoman she says things then like I know I'm I'm just a business person but I try and make money and give it away way which essentially says what I'm not in the game but through the game I make money and then I hand it over to people who are in the game and so I said no I'm I just do this thing it's not really it's not really that but uh maybe someday I'll be able to make enough that I can then leave that and I'll have enough time to devote to the higher plane but in Genesis 1 and2 soil and spirit are united in Genesis 1 and two everything is blessed in Genesis 1:2 one of the central tasks is the proper ordering of things so no wonder sometimes people come and say things in your office like I don't know I just go to work and I just want to get out of work and I just want to do ministry and you're thinking every day you go to an office full of people who you have contact with them all day and they're hurting and wounded and trying to make sense of the world and you have every day endless opportunities to engage and talk with them and they trust you and like you and you want to get out of that so that you can be a part of the action are you right you're going okay wait wait you're this is like this person is a missionary they just pay their own way perhaps when you begin to read it with Genesis 1 and two all sorts of things start to kind of pop and explode whoa is it possible that my sermon is handing people a sort of bifurcated World in which there is the action and then there is the other stuff that just you know that's just kind of how the how we run the world all the stuff that just kind of has to get done so that we can get but but perhaps what Jesus was trying to teach and endlessly pointing to is an awareness that oh no no you're a minister the kingdom is advancing it's here it's now it's upon you I just think this has huge huge implications let's talk about art uh if it is a dynamic not a static reality and it's going somewhere and it's producing and sprouting all that then art is just the the creative arranging of that it's Aesthetics the tree was good the the fruit was pleasing to the eye I mean it's Aesthetics are right there in Genesis 1 and two and they're absolutely vital and the impracticality of art is part of its Central purpose God doesn't just love you for what you create efficiency production isn't God's highest value for you because God created the world and it's good and God wants you to enjoy it one of the one of the values of art is it reminds us that not everything and not all of our worth is based on how hard we work and how good we are because it's just is but in a Genesis 3 understanding of the story everything is suspect in a Genesis 1 and 2 understanding God blesses creation and the people God places within it and so making things is already blessed if I then when I create something need to give it a Christian blessing stamp I am essentially saying I'm going to do something that apparently God hasn't done and I wonder if God is saying I already did that a long time ago you are a lot of energy defining and labeling I took care of that just make it and then whatever you do in your acceptance speech don't say don't thank me because I don't think it's that good but um no no no no I actually think this is this is the problem for you when people start trying to label things well is it a Christian whatever and you're like all I know is it's more humming with reverence and awe than some of the things that had the Christian label on them that thing didn't use any of the language but it was more true and up into what's Christian and what isn't and then this kid won't fit with the labeling system and so obviously this we need to pray about this kid there's Pro there's issues here in his growth and we we're not quite sure if there if the faith is really sticking but the kid may actually get it more than the system that the kid has been handed cuz the kid intuitively is picking up on a blessing on creation all around the place and the kid is going if I have to choose between the thing that's real and blessed and that labeling system I'm going to go with this and the labeling system's like but if we read Genesis 1 and two properly then we aren't surprised and so we we and and I'm not I mean there obviously are times you're like okay that stuff right there is generally quite destructive and doesn't bring much and that stuff that I mean there not that there isn't discernment but that seems to be oh the rabbis say this God begins the story by separating light from dark and that is our task separating light from dark and so the discernment then obviously becomes the primary virtue perhaps that's why sometimes the label say or this one we're just using music for something else and so something that is Holy and sacred only then become already it's already blessed it only then becomes valid if it can be used for something else which is really saying this thing is no good unless it can be essentially exploited to get us somewhere else but in Genesis 1 and 2 it's just blessed and sacred because it is cuz God made it and said it's good and then um maybe just to get some discussion start Justice issues of Justice poor the oppressed billion people don't have drinking water half the world lives on less than2 American dollars a day 800 million people will go to sleep hungry tonight a Genesis 3 understanding is okay that stuff is nice I guess if you have time but if the story is about God restoring all things everything from empty stomachs to empty Hearts reconciling all things things renewing all things then issues of justice and if Genesis 1 and 2 is about the proper ordering of creation if 80% of the world lives in substandard housing then we aren't ordering creation well one of the things um I've read is that there is enough food in the world the problems come in distribution so apparently the Earth is fully capable of properly feeding everybody but what's gotten in the way disruption Rebellion participation missing so these issues in Genesis 1 and 2 there's Justice is everything in its proper place so then justice issues don't become things for for people who have extra time on their hands or um what whatever Justice then becomes a natural part of the story that God is telling our and if there are multiple dimensions of Shalom then there is our restoration to our creator our restoration to each other our restoration our broken relationship with the Earth and so Justice then of course is part of the story that we're telling and I think sometimes this is the thing about well wait wait wait is the gospel um what we say or what we do or is the gospel um the heart or is it the larger system and all that well if we have a story that begins in Genesis 1 and 2 then we don't endlessly have to decide if it's this or this because we have an understanding that that it's all embraced in God's desire to put it all back together sometimes I um sometimes I think what thing has helped me is whenever you find those situations where is it this or is it this you know is it this or is it this is it what we say or what we do is it the individual human heart or is it the whole system is it this and I was go man it looks like you're about to embrace the whole thing um now a sermon then is the continuing insistence that through the resurrection of Jesus A Whole New World is bursting forth right in the midst of this one and everybody everywhere can be a part of it [Applause] am so a a sermon centers around the resurrection but it centers around an insistence that there's something happening right in the midst of this one and everybody everywhere can be a part of that you may have seen it before you may have seen it and it wasn't properly labeled apparently but it was the thing or perhaps you saw it in places where you're like I man that was the last place I expected that's what you saw this also well we'll get to that in a second it's the continuing insistence that through the resurrection of Jesus A Whole New World is bursting forth right in the midst of this one and everybody everywhere can be part of it a sermon then is about helping people see this new creation with their own eyes one of the gifts of the sermon is empowering and equipping people to be able to spot it um Also let's keep it this here A CP a couple um truths that flow out of this what you look for you will find what you look for you will find if you look for churches that make you embarrassed to be a Christian you may find them if that's what you're looking for you meet people who are like dude I just want nothing to do with Christianity and all that because of d da d d d da if you look for that I'm sure you can find it sure you can but um I'm trying to think uh a uh how old is she 18 19 year old girl three weeks ago said to me every Christian I know has been coming to our church for probably grew up at our church prob been there seven or eight years every Christian I know is totally lame and Christianity is pathetic and why would I ever want to be that thanks but but but I said to her what about and and we was right after a church service I said what about that woman right there who just said to that other woman you lost your job and I've decided that I am going to pay your grocery bill until you get a new one problem is I don't know what to do with that and what about that those folks over there you know what they just did they just sold most of their possessions in order to rescue a couple of Orphans that's why those two little kids are with them and they aren't the same skin color because those people just said these kids don't have a home we need to take care of them and give them a home so the problem is they have a sense that that was what Jesus wanted them to do and they did it my problem is you've seen that but my problem is I've seen that and now you've seen [Laughter] that yeah and and sometimes I wonder if really really good teaching and preaching is there's a sort of tour guide Dimension to it hey check this out sometimes I think one of the gifts you give people is you show them something that they would at first blush and they would thin slice it as there's nothing there for me no Resurrection going on there sometimes I think one of the gifts is you show something in which we have instantaneous sort of judgments about its unred nature and you go hey by check this out now look behind it now look over there now look over there and all of a sudden they're like wow now I can't see that thing anymore now a sermon then brings hope rooted not in Escape but engagement not in evacuation but Reclamation not in leaving but staying and overcoming see see there is sometimes a hope you'll pick up like a oh no it's okay I have hope but the hope it's called conservative materialism is the actual technical title it is Hope in I'm going to get out of here someday the resurrection is not a hope rooted in some other place in a disembodied evacuation the resurrection is hope for this world the one that God is renewing restoring reconciling and if you think through then if you begin in Genesis 3 or Genesis 1 a conservative materialistic view which essentially says we'll get out of here someday and that's our hope what it really is saying is everything up till then is kind of hanging around its hope comes from the story and narrative it is constructed about someday the resurrection hope begins here and now that is a very very different hope it may use the word hope but the hope the engine of the Hope comes from two very different impulses the one is something has gone down in the resurrection that affects everything right now beginning with me here and you here now the other is a hope that someday something will happen somewhere that somehow then will look back and it'll and this will all begin to make sense the other has a much more the other and once again I would simply say that I think people smell this stuff I think when people use words like it was relevant they're really tapping into a deep it somehow unlocked something here and now which is wonderfully the story of the scriptures and then um let's do one more um a sermon then is never surprised when Grace Beauty meaning order compassion Truth and Love show up in all sorts of unexpected people and places because it always has been God's world it is God's world and it always will be God's world this then gives you a freedom you can quote if it if that quote if that movie clip if that philosopher if that the whole world is your rhetorical toolbox also then this in some senses frees us when we stumble upon something it's like okay that's real that's true that's that's huming with reverence that's got Resurrection written all over it sometimes there's a okay I'm going to I'm going to point to it but then I'm instantly going to give the disclaimer now as far as I know this person isn't a born again believer but I think for this one I was praying about 5 minute stretch of time I think they were on to something you this frees you you don't always have to then add a caveat correct was this person created by God oh yeah did God create them in God's image yeah are they living in God's world yeah did God give them the ability to think and reason and speech and feel yeah sweet this frees me to live in God's world and tell a particular story and and if this helps the whole world is your toolbox and that's actually what you're trying to teach teach people a big generous view of God now obviously there's been a significant amount of distortion disruption destruction Rebellion participation of course of course obviously but the resurrection is about a whole new creation bursting forth right here in the midst of this one and our task and joy is trying to help people have the kind of eyes through which they can see it for themselves so the story anticipates a coming day and it lives in the reality of that coming day now we act in such a way that our actions and the consequences of our actions can extend on forever into this world maybe one way to say it is I want to be a part of things that will be in that new world that will endure that when everything is in its bright proper place when there is harmony within hierarchy and when soil and spirit and all this I want to act in such a way that my actions will will flow right on in to that and it won't be like what's that that can't fit here so there's just a few thoughts for [Music] you

Channel: Rleesawyer

Views: 85,828

Keywords: Prophet, creation, gospel, Holy, Bell, Word, teaching, preaching, method, origins, message, God, love, meaning of life, purpose, Education, End, Spirit, mars hill, emergent, religion, church, movement, Christianity, new, rebirth, reconciliation, spiritual, Lord, Spirituality, Truth, Salvation, Prophecy, Poetry, sin, fall, Peace, shalom, Rest, Happiness, Hope, World, Poem, Unity, rob bell, wins, Letter

Id: 2CwMOcMDjhc

Length: 56min 30sec (3390 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 07 2012