Shane Willard - We Are Creators

thanks steve all right feel the talk let's follow actual bible genesis chapter one i figured we could start in the beginning i'll be good um i want to challenge us when we open scripture remember we want to ask what happened and more importantly it's happening to me right now because of what happened here is the first description of god recorded in the scriptures here it is in the beginning god created so the first description of god in all of the scriptures is that he is a creator first verb he is a creating god and actually in hebrew there it says in the beginning the divine relationship created there's the word for god there is plural elohim um it's all all nouns all pronouns all verbs in genesis 1 describing god is plural that god is not a singularity god is a divine relationship acting in such symbiosis that it looks like one it's a beautiful the ancient people in the second century they came up with the word for trinity um before the second century it was called the pericaresis or a circle dance they called god a divine dance that god is creating now the question is is how does this work out and if we're made in the image of god both male and female if we're made in the image of god if god is a creator then we are a creator now once again that is a platitude if i was to say that we are to be the presence of god in our world no one goes no no we need less of that right that's obviously true right right if i was to say god is a creator you're made the image of god therefore one of the functions you have on the earth is to be a creator no one goes no no we need less creativity no right the problem with that is if we don't have language so so let's look at this god is creating and how does it work out i would say not well at first watch what god created the heavens and the earth and the earth had a problem it was without form and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep this is turning out terribly and the spirit of god was hovering over the face of the violent water and god said let there be light and there was light so here's what you see in genesis 1 the most basic thing we could ever learn about god that when god sees disorder disrepair chaos and darkness he doesn't sit above it and judge it nor does he sit above it and criticize it rather he engages the darkness with light he engages the disorder with order he engages the chaos with new creation that god does not judge dark things criticize dark things rather god engages the story in order to make a better narrative which leads me to a primary image of god that i was taught as a kid that has brought great damage to my life and that and i'm hoping to shift that and that is this and i want you to be i want to be clear i'm not mad at these people because i knew what they were trying i now know what they were trying to say it's just not true and that is this god is too holy to be in the presence of sin and i know what they're trying to say they're trying to say god's holy okay and just like all lies all lies have a bit of truth to it but but god is too holy to be in the presence of sin is empirically and observably and just obviously not true he's in you he's in me he's in the earth he's holding the whole thing together if god is avoiding sin he's doing a horrendous job at it right i think i think there's a better way to say it one way to say it is god is too holy to be in the presence of sin what if we thought of it a little bit differently what if we said it this way god is too holy not to engage the sinful story in order to make a better narrative that's what you see in scripture you never see in scripture god going i'm too holy to jump into that i'm too holy to put my holy fingers into it if i put my holy fingerprint on that i might get blamed for that mess that'd be terrible that happened that'd be awful no no no you you actually see the opposite and actually you see the opposite from the beginning from the beginning you see darkness disorder chaos disrepair and god's like i'm in i'm in i'm gonna meet that story right where it is and slowly unfold it into something really really beautiful if you don't remember anything i say tonight remember this love doesn't keep score and remember this that god seems with one very rare exception that i can think of god seems to always be humble enough to meet you where you think he is and then move you forward this has happened at creation darkness disorder chaos i'm in i'm going to meet it right there and then i'm going to engage the story in order to make a better narrative later there's a guy named abraham and abraham lived in a culture where they thought they had to kill children to please god and god's like god never said i'm too holy to touch that one boy that would be that's terrible i don't want my fingerprint anywhere near that no i'm too holy no it's the opposite he he he shows up to abraham and he says abraham you think you need to kill kids fine kill your kid god met abraham right where abraham thought he was and then right in the middle of the story he brings about a better narrative he's like hey i got an idea instead of killing children i started instead of killing children let's kill animals instead have you a good idea right because when you're the first guy to get the idea let's kill animals instead of children is that a good idea or a bad idea it's a really good flipping idea is is that a word from god you better believe it is that the final word of god no the final word of god's the risen christ but that's a giant leap in the right direction what happened at creation god met creation right where it was and moved it what happened with abraham he met abraham right where abraham thought god was and he moved him he shifted the consciousness and then later there's a guy named moses moses grew up in pharaoh's house and in pharaoh's house who was god the son so what is the sun made of fire so you grow up your whole life thinking god's a fire and you're taught if you tick god off he consumes you so moses thinks god's a fire think about moses's narrative how does god show up to moses as a fire in other words if you think i'm a fire i'll be a fire i'll be anything you want me to be i'll meet you right where you want me right where you think i am that's where i'll meet you so you'll recognize me and then we'll shift together that'll be good it'd be good oh you think i'm a fire i'll be a fire but oh but notice notice i'm not a consuming fire i'm not even burning up the most flammable thing in the desert a dry bush i'm more of a refining fire so he met moses right where he thought god was and then he shifted his consciousness about what god was you think of a fire i'll be a fire but i'm not the kind of fire you thought i was right as the great t.s eliot wrote it we only sustain only cespire consumed by either fire or fire that you will live your whole life terrified of the consuming fire of the sun god ra or by faith you will embrace the loving fire of a refining fire of yahweh who although he will perfect you he will never harm you for the bush was not consumed that is eloquence that is shakespeare and the hulk having a kid that is amazing stuff years years later there's this guy named jesus jesus shows up see he shows up in a world that thought caesar was god caesar so finally the world thought god could be in a man and god's like i'm in oh you f do you think the you think god can be a man i'll be a man but i'll be a different kind of thing you've ever seen if because if god was actually in a man he wouldn't be oppressing everybody he would be raping and pillaging and enriching one percent of the world at the back of the 99 he wouldn't be doing that he'd be lifting the lowly to the level of the elite he'd be ending the class systems there wouldn't be any june or greek slaving or free male nor female because god is the ground of being hold on all things together and if there's only one god and that god is holding all things together you can't possibly treat women worse than men you can't possibly treat black people worse than white people can't possibly think of jews higher than greeks actually no for god is the ground of being you think god can be a man fine i'll come as a man but i'll turn your concept upside down as to what god would look like if he was a man this is what god's been doing since the beginning was engaging broken stories and making new narratives do you ever see jesus judging the world never never do you ever see him criticizing the broken story of someone's life no he always engages the story and makes a better narrative he always comes into it it's sort of like this if a four-year-old drew you a picture and said mommy daddy auntie uncle cousin pastor whoever i drew you a picture well unless they're highly gifted that picture is going to be frankly terrible right and you look at the picture and you're like you can't even notice anything in it but do you tell them that no why because you have a soul right right you don't look at a four-year-old's attempt at a drawing and criticize it or judge it or sit above it what do you do you go ah it's beautiful what is it she says oh it's a windmill you can't see a windmill anywhere in there what do you do do you crumble it up and throw it away and say come back when you learn how to draw little girl no why because you have a soul and however literal hell is you would go there if you did that what if she then what if she hands you a pencil or a crayon or a marker whatever she'd used she says you draw what do you do do you draw a perfect windmill how it's done and compare your mature age work with this four-year-old no what do you do you take her picture you might even put your hand over her hand and you make the picture better and then what do you do you hand it to her and let her tell everybody that she did it that's that's a human kindness imagine that with god's kindness that's what jesus did for the world he didn't come into the world to condemn the world but rather to save it in other words he didn't come into the broken picture of the world to crumble it up and throw it away and burn it he came into the world to engage the broken narrative and make a better story why because he's been a creator since before time and he's still at work now what does that mean what do creators do well creators don't sit above things and judge it nor do creators criticize nor do creators anonymously sit behind computer screens and argue on the internet people made in the image of god do not point out the problem unless they are fully engaged to use their resources for the solution what if the church was known worldwide for being creators what does that mean we would have to repent from judging the world oh no are christians known worldwide for being quiet about our criticism of the world i don't think so and i think that's sad are christians known worldwide for their for their lack of judgmentalness i don't think so what if christians did what they were called to do from the beginning and that is take responsibility to be the creator what does that mean it means you don't sit above it and judge it you don't sit above it and criticize it that you engage the story with the goal of making a better narrative because blind criticism and judgment the hebrews had a word for blind criticism do you know what the word was ready and this is true not making it up ready the word was ha saitan does that sound familiar that when we are the accuser or the criticizer we're actually functioning as the ha seitan [Laughter] to be a creator we have to repent from judgment and criticism and make a commitment to engage the story once again no one can disagree with that that is obviously true no one would go no we need less engagement no we need less solutions the question is is how do we do it what does that mean let's put some language around this next slide so how can we do so as influencers we're called to be creators now what does that mean it means that creators don't avoid disorder they engage disorder with order creators don't avoid chaos they engage chaos with creation they come in to solve the issue make a better narrative see creators understand that everything's belongs jesus said the wheat and the weeds grow together the issue isn't that the wheat doesn't belong and the weeds don't belong it's just knowing how to order it to make a beautiful story we don't banish the disorder we don't criticize it that doesn't help it only empowers it we actually reorder it my good friend ben stains um he pastors one of the great churches in australia a church called generosity church ben stains is one of my heroes i love him and his wife libby very very much they have i think 11 campuses they are they feel called to rule new south wales so he grew up in a place called naremine um like pittsworth is atlanta georgia compared to neremine right and he grew the church to over a hundred and then a place called dubbo called him and so they said please come help us and so he went to dubbo and pastor dubo and never mind it's about 50 minutes away from each other and then that went well and then he went down that road and planted a church in every community on that road parks forbes bathurst orange cobar burke kyama coughs harbor wagawaga right and we were talking about philosophy and ministry he told me a story that moved me um see americans are enamored with aussie culture we love it if you want to make a lot of money move to america and start any business that's aussie themed we love it crocodile dundee love it love it outback steakhouse has made billions on very average meals just by naming the steak after australian towns the rockhampton ribeye [Laughter] the alice springs chicken the bloomin onion and if you ask a waitress at outback they're trained to say that the bloomin onion was something especially invented in the outback by aborigines which i'm quite certain did not happen so americans who've never been to australia when they come to australia for the first time they want to see one thing the outback why because of outback steakhouse and crocodile dundee they don't understand that there's nothing there i try to tell them trust me you get 10 miles out of mount isa you can drive for a thousand miles and it never looks any different and you better have some fuel on you by the way if you're driving from ganda to toowoomba after eight o'clock at night you'd better have some fuel on you i did that the other night there's nowhere to stop i saw less than 10 cars the whole way on either side unbelievable americans don't understand that so but but americans they they're stubborn they come out they go to the outback this this this happened back in the 90s this american guy came he wanted to see the outbacks he went to the outback and he was amazed at the size of the properties like my pastor was a former cattle guy and and his farm was 70 miles long by 30 miles wide well to an american that's connecticut right that's a state we don't understand things that size that's just unbelievable and then the american was was flabbergasted that they didn't have a fence around the properties because but how do you put a fence around connecticut you can't and so he asked the farmer he said how do you how do you keep your cattle when there's no fence holding them in and the farmer said what you do you have a surveyor come and you dig wells down the center of your property and if you dig wells down the center of your property you don't need a fence because the cattle won't journey too far from the water source he said son if you got proper wells you don't need fences now that will preach in other words if you're creating meaningful experiences with the divine you don't need to create another temple system of who's in who's out who's right who's wrong who's clean who's unclean you need to pay attention to the direction of the shoulders not the destination because when there's a well they won't vary too far from it which leads me to this are we well diggers or fence makers see fence makers sit above stuff and criticize what they want clean definitions of right wrong in out unclean clean they actually make the mistake of organizing their life solely around right and wrong if you want to ruin your life solely and only consider what is right and what wrong there's there is a lot of things that aren't wrong that aren't wise and that's the first lie ever recorded in the bible and we should remember it because evidently it was told by a talking snake a talking snake said if you want the best life organize your life around good and evil that is not true the more profound questions is what is wise and what is useful so are we well diggers or fence makers next slide let's put some language around this how does god do this and i think we can learn from god here that when god engages disorder and chaos to make a better story he does it with lots of things but because it's one talk for one night we will talk about three things because three things make a good sermon one intentional vision god sees the solution and is systematic in executing his vision and once again that's obviously true god solved the problem he fixed it so what does that mean for us let's put some language let's say let's say this way that as we're living life our yes must be clear and our yes must be the driving force of all of our no responses so everything we're saying no to see good hearted people here's what they struggle with when i say no am i being selfish good-hearted people struggle with that and sometimes you are but here's a good way to know here's a good way to know is my no a selfish no or a healthy note and here it is if your no is clearly attached to a yes in other words i have to say no to that because i've said yes to something else that's a healthy no right let me maybe let's say it this way one yes requires 100 no responses and those hundred no responses are mature no's as long as they're attached to a yes right let's give you an example to be a yes person on forgiveness means you have to say no to grudges but but saying no to grudges doesn't help us in and of itself that the no to grudges must be a yes to forgiveness to be a yes person on financial security means we have to say no to frivolous spending probably should say no to spending ten dollars a day on coffee two five dollar coffees a day is ten dollars a day thirty six hundred and fifty dollars a year on coffee 3 650 a year invested from 21 to 65 makes you worth 1.1 million dollars hope you like the coffee right to say anything wrong with spending ten dollars a day on on making pee no it'll make you slightly more alert for 14 minutes and then you must go to the toilet that's what coffee does amazing anything wrong with spending ten dollars a day on making urine no but if your goal is to be financially secure in your 60s you might want to say no to some of this frivolous stuff right to to be to be a yes person on fitness good job means we have to be in no person on overeating right like you can't saying no to gluttony never works unless it's yes to a certain body image body health a certain level of fitness let's say let's say this way you don't have to plan to be unhealthy you just have to have no health plan and unhealth will overtake you yeah let's say another way you you don't have to plan to fail you just have to have no plan and failure to be a normal part of your existence right like let's put some real concrete like you don't have to plan to be fat you just have to have no fitness plan and unfitness will overtake you don't have to get up in the morning go i intend to eat entirely too many calories for my body today and i'm gonna do that over and over and over and over and over again you don't have to intend to do that you just have to have no fitness plan and some of that just sort of naturally comes you don't have to intend to be broke you don't you just have to have no financial plan and brokenness will overtake you why because if we don't know what we're saying yes to we have no idea what we say no to i love the way the wisdom writer said it he says where people don't know their yes they cast off restraint you might you might think of that verse and remember in this translation where there's no vision people perish in hebrew it says where there's no clear yes the people cast off restraint in other words without knowing what we say yes to we have no clue what we're meant to say no to what you see in god is clear yeses clear yeses and there's a lot of lessons and man i might have to come back if you'll have me right because i'm having some thoughts now we have time to go through but there's there's some things that um like if our faith is predominantly defined by the no response it is very boring very quickly like if an atheist and i'm not talking about a i'm talking about a good-hearted curious atheist came in here tonight and said excuse me i don't want to be dishonest i'm a good-hearted curious atheist i'm absolutely an atheist but i truly and authentically want to hear you out would someone be willing to have a cup of coffee with me and explain exactly what value christ has made to your life right would we want to have that cup of coffee yes we would also want to vote on to who gets to do that like you want to send the smart person you don't want to send the person whose eye twitches and they think hey stack's bowing right you know you you you you'd want to send the reasonable person right and what if what if what if what if he says okay okay i'm listening what value has christ made to your life do you realize if we define our faith solely in the abstinations that gets very uncompelling very quickly okay oh okay okay all right as christians we don't kill each other we abstain from murder right he'd go yeah yeah murder is not a thing in atheism either in general we don't murder people oh right um okay uh okay in christianity we don't take each other's things he'd go uh yeah uh atheism in general not a thing all right um okay um okay in christianity we abstain from sleeping with other people's spouses right he'd go yeah again not a thing we sleep with each other spouses at about the same rate y'all do so like i don't know what do you what do you get see if our faith is solely defined by the things we abstain from and let me be clear if you struggle not killing someone please keep struggling right right but if if that's all it is it's boring i i would bet i would bet a lot that no one in here barely made it through the week not physically literally killing somebody like your story is not yes i made it i made it through another week i didn't kill somebody that's amazing i got to pick up my chip right no no no no no no this is a week without killing some i i would bet no one in here struggled not stealing this week right no it's not a at some point look are the abstinations important yes but at some point they just become and i would bet i would bet that you didn't kill somebody this week and i would bet a really pretty penny that the reason you didn't kill somebody is not because the bible says i bet you didn't kill someone just because you're not a killer right like if you say no i i the reason i behave is is solely because of what the bible says i would i would challenge that i would challenge you to test that to tonight before you go to bed hold your wife's hand look at her in the eye and say sweetie the only reason i'm not sleeping with a lot of other people is because the bible tells me not to [Laughter] see how that goes like like the no responses are good but the far more powerful response is the yes we engage in what we learn from god is that his yes was clear and so should ours be so so let's ask a few questions are we clear in what we want the organization to look like the family the business the ministry because if you're not clear the people you're leading definitely not clear um is there alignment between questions and stated values this is just some basic social science ready if the questions we ask align with our stated values three things happen trust goes up anxiety goes down corporate confidence increases now does that sound like a good thing how many of us want trust to go up anxiety to go down in our families trust to go up anxiety go down in our homes in our jobs in our neighborhoods and our ministry whatever trust goes up anxiety goes down corporate confidence increases one of the best ways to do that is to make sure and test that the questions we're asking equals the stated value that there's congruence that if there's not congruence anxiety goes up trust goes down corporate confidence decreases if you're thinking what are you talking about let me give you a concrete example so your 11 year old is studying for an exam and you peek into the dining room and this particular 11 year old is sort of like type a he doesn't know how to get a b he stresses over exams and he's like agonizing do i know it do i know it do i know it do i know it and you're a good mom so you try to comfort that kid and you're like don't worry buddy all i want you to do is do your best is that a statement or question it's a statement it's the stated value i want you to do your best so the next day you pick up little johnny from school and johnny gets in the car and you say hey buddy how'd the test go did you do your best then the question you asked and the statement you made said the same thing his trust goes up his anxiety goes down corporate confidence increases but if he gets in the car and he and you say how'd the tesco what grade did you make then the stated value and the question value are two different things trust goes down anxiety goes up corporate confidence decreases one of the most basic things we could do in our families in our ministries whatever is to make sure that the questions we're asking and the stories we're telling equals the statements we're making next slide we've spoken or are we too compromising with our confessions the issue is almost never right or wrong right or wrong is a terrible filter if it's the only filter the the far more profound filter is what is wise what is useful in the last 30 days what has dominated our confessions have we allowed ourselves to get caught up in negative confessions that don't fix or engage the disorder to make a better story maybe maybe we need to all take a break from facebook forever i've somehow managed to make it my whole life without posting one thing you ever see shane willard posted something there's a lot of things about me that would be a lie they if they if they ever tell you hey what happened to shane he jumped out of an airplane the parachute didn't open that's a lie somebody killed me took me up there and dropped me out of it right i didn't do that did they hear what happened shane went swimming with scuba gear with sharks and they got him la somebody made it look that way shane was climbing a mountain with his bare hands and fell off instead of just driving up on the road right shane posted something on social media lie no just don't do it why because in general unless it's announcing a meeting or it's used for marketing for our business personal uses of those kind of things is just straight spouting off scapegoating unengaged complaining about something without any any engagement for a solution and then when we're reading it we start to compromise our own confession and our yes gets less clear and if our yes gets less clear what we need to say no to gets less clear and then we're compromised what do creators do they don't judge they don't criticize they engage the story to make a better story how do we do that intentional vision our yes is clear and then we hold alignment we hold ourselves accountable for the alignment of our questions and state of values and we hold ourselves accountable for the words that we say the third thing that you see is intentional rest that there seems to be a six in one rhythm built into creating the thing i love about god is that god seems to know when to be on and when to be off let me let me play what i mean by that he knows when to engage and when there's time to disengage even in creation six days of engagement one day of i'm chilling now there seems to be a rhythm and if something's on too much it's a problem see too much engagement leads to white noise and confusion i would also say too little engagement leads to boredom and depression like depression is real i have a master's degree in clinical psychology i can like somebody says i'm depressed i go why and they tell me well my mom died and then my daughter graduated and then moved out and then she got a job and now there's a marriage and and oh and and and then there's this transition over here and i sort of got made redundant here and they start naming all these transitional things in their life and i'm going of course you're depressed you would be abnormal not to have some level of depression here there's too many transitional things going on but if someone says oh no everything's pretty good i just feel blah now sometimes there's a chemical issue and that can be fixed but sometimes when you really look at their life and you get to talking with him it's not depression it's boredom there's not enough engagement so too much engagement is white noise and confusing too little is boredom and depression see let's see if i can make a lesson from this from music i don't know music very well you know when it's good and when it's not good but here's what i do know about music music is made up of notes come on now everybody you paid to be here tonight music is made up of notes but it's also made up of rests an actual sheet music is made up of notes and rests and rhythm time signatures and this is what happens and we've all been in church long enough to see this happen like you could have the best singer in toowoomba here next to the best keyboard player next to the best guitar player and it doesn't matter if the drummer is awful because there's no such thing as a good enough musician to overcome a terrible drummer if the drummer is terrible it butchers the song and we've all been in church long enough to see that happen at least once it's thursday night you're in church you've seen this where everybody's playing the right key and the right notes but the drummer is one sixteenth of a beat off and there's this awkward and there is no option but to start over there's no musician good enough to overcome that why because when the rhythm's off it butchers the song and so sometimes what happens in our life is if things start going into disrepair we start asking where am i playing my life in the wrong notes that's our question oh what am i doing wrong sometimes nothing and if we are playing our life in the wrong notes change key absolutely but if you look at your life ago i'm actually doing nothing wrong but something is out of it's normally not the notes and it's normally not the key sometimes your drummer is off and we have too much rhythm too much engagement too much ignoring the right can you imagine a musical ensemble where they ignored the rests it would sound like noise you know what this sounds like it happens every week at every church in the first two songs which happen to be the fast ones right here's what happens how do you transition from one fast song to another how do you do it you do it with something called a crash bang now a crash bang is when everybody is playing their notes in the right key the right notes but they're ignoring the rest it's where at the end of a fast song and the bass players right and the keyboard players and the drummer's hitting everything at once and it's awesome for 10 seconds but can you imagine a crash bang going for 30. a minute when the musicians are ignoring the rest it's only cool for a few seconds and then it starts to actually hurt see one of the things we can learn from god at creation is it's okay to disengage one of the questions we have to ask is is am i engaging too much but we can all we also need to ask am i engaging too little in other words if there's a song with too much rest it's that's boring it's not enough um not enough notes so if if there's not enough engagement we need to increase our engagement but if there's too much engagement it's okay to be off to have a sabbath a regular day where you don't do what you did the other days that's okay too one of my favorite stories around jesus is it's in mark 5 jesus um is at this house and it says he throws out a demon something like somebody has a demon you know which is an interesting thing i've only seen it a couple times in my life i'm literally not interested in seeing it again i i'm happy for that and but if look if you have a devil i don't see felicity she'll handle it i don't i i'm like it's just it's just frankly time consuming and a little scary but anyway so jesus throws out this devil and he knows shoot the word's going to spread and they're going to all want something and it says that he spent all night with the demon possessed because when you want to energize your life that's a good one and it says that he knew the next day was going to be worse so before anybody got up before the sun was up let's call that 4 am it says he went off to a solitary place to disengage and pray and just be with him and his father the sun comes up and the crowd is enormous and peter evidently knows where jesus spot is and he goes and finds jesus spot and peter scolds jesus he speaks down to jesus christ and he says jesus christ what are you doing here don't you know everyone's waiting for you and jesus says really everyone's waiting for me then let us go somewhere else in other words even jesus christ knows when to disengage because part of being a creator is intentional vision what to say yes to what to say no to alignment of stated values and questions it's a decision not to judge or criticize but rather engage the story to make a better one it's it's intentional words it's holding ourselves accountable but it's also knowing when to engage and when to disengage that's how we do that next slide so some questions that we need to ask for application are the people we're leading frustrated by the gap between stated values and questions maybe trust is down and anxiety's up and corporate confidence is decreasing not because people are bad but because the statements we're making and the questions we're asking are telling tutor stories like if i stand here and say money doesn't matter and then all i do is ask questions about giving it reveals something else actually trust would go up if i go money matters a lot and then i ask questions about money a lot then oh at least he's being authentic right so so when our stated values and our actual values are revealed by the questions we ask in the stories we tell the questions we ask in the stories we tell reveal and reinforce the values that's how it works two how can we help them decrease their anxiety well it's just by aligning our words number three in our organization have we been clear about what we value like your family your business your neighbors your your home your church do they actually get what it's all about next slide are we too compromising with our words and confessions no shame god's not mad at you but it does hinder your life as a creator if we compromise the words with our yeses five do our words say do they the context is our words do our words create order or disorder that's my question is what we're saying participating in a more beautiful story or does it create more disorder confusion not are they right or wrong let me remind us we always think we're right when we say it nobody says something out loud they think is wrong nobody goes you know what i know i'm wrong i'm gonna say it anyway nobody does that unless you're a psychopath one of my teachers in high school she encouraged debate right she says i want you to wrestle with me wants to hash things out we interpret stuff i want you to you know want you to really you know come on like like respectful but debate this might surprise you but there was a time in my life i was pretty good at that and i took her seriously i took her on one time i backed her into a corner she couldn't wiggle i had cornered her with my words and it's at that point that how much she valued debate got exposed she could say nothing so she said shade willard you think you're always right to which i said when was the last time you said something you thought was wrong that would be weird she sent me to the principal's office i would have been a frustrating teenager anyway the question we need to ask is not are our words right or wrong we always think they're right it's do they create order or disorder number six is my song out of rhythm is my song out of rhythm not are you doing the wrong things but are you engaging too much or engaging too little the last question i want to leave us with as creators as this am i a well digger or a fence maker because see as creators we have to choose not to judge or criticize rather engage the story to make something better that requires us to be a well digger not a fence maker more in and out us and them clean and unclean that's old jewish temple system no no no no come on no intentional vision intentional words intentional rest so may we engage our world not to criticize it and not to judge it but to commit our life to making a better story around it so my brothers and sisters of toowoomba i hope jesus got bigger for you tonight the crosswork better the resurrection central and scriptures got bigger not smaller originally we thought about putting a q a in but frankly i talked too long so i hope and truly i think in terms of content i don't think anybody got ripped off tonight never everybody's everybody's okay good good good and it's my fault i was supposed to be done with that session at 8 40 and we have 20 minutes of q a but i was just having too much fun so i hope that jesus got bigger the crosswork better the resurrection central scriptures got bigger not smaller may we live more profoundly than keeping score reminding ourselves that god doesn't keep score may we show the world what that might look like may we be creators never judging our world never criticizing it rather engaging it in order to make a better narrative with intentional vision intentional words and intentional rest may we know how to engage and disengage in order to be well diggers and never fence makers that's the entire night in a 20-second summary grace and peace everybody god bless you

Channel: Belong Church

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Length: 46min 15sec (2775 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 08 2020