What Do You Hunger and Thirst For?

[Music] welcome to woodland hills and thanks for tuning in we hope that both your heart and mind are inspired today and that you enjoy our service here in minnesota and around the world we're learning to love together [Music] good morning woodland hills i'm paul eddy i serve as a teaching pastor here at the church and i'm greg boyd and i serve as the teaching pastor here at the church and we're on the executive team together and we'd like to take a few minutes just to update you on where things are at for us as a church in this post-covert world our leadership teams and that includes both our pastoral team and the church board we've been in regular prayer and discussion regarding the question of when to return to in-person weekend services in the past few weeks these two leadership teams have come to a consensus that we should wait until 2021 before returning to our large in-person worship services now there's a number of reasons for this decision and we'd like to share some of the key ones with you first one of the most important reasons we're holding off until 2021 is we want to put the health and well-being of our most vulnerable congregation members at the forefront of this decision you know with the virus continuing to powerfully impact the lives of older persons and those with underlying health conditions we just want to do everything we can to self-sacrificially love and care for this most vulnerable portion of our church family now second we've also come to realize that if we did start to regather serve for services this fall while also abiding by all of the current health guidelines and gathering size restrictions this would allow only a small portion of our congregation to be able to attend any service and as part of our discernment process we've been in touch with other churches and pastors whose wisdom we respect that includes bruxy cavey of our friends of the meeting house up in toronto and they've come to a decision very similar to ours as one pastor put it it makes no sense to focus all of our staff and resources on creating a sub-par environment on sunday morning that can only have 20 percent of our people attend finally instead of focusing on this 20 percent we could have for any particular service we want to keep focusing and continuing to improve and expand the ways that we're ministering both online and in smaller in-person contexts by doing this we'll have the opportunity to touch a hundred percent of our people every week you know as greg has often reminded us our god is brilliant at bringing good out of evil and one of the things he's bringing out of this difficult pandemic is the opportunity for all of us to explore new ways of staying connected ministering to each other and really being the church for the sake of the world we believe that this pandemic is forcing us to exercise some new ministry muscles that will really be important for us on into the future just as one example in moving our many in ministries online we've been able to finally connect with so many more of our prisoners from around the world than we ever have before now all of this being said as you can imagine this was not an easy decision to make when exactly in 2021 will begin to regather for large services is still an open question much of that will depend on the pattern of the virus this fall and winter what we do know is we are looking forward to the day when we can once again gather together safely and without putting any of the vulnerable among us in danger that day will come but until then we also look forward to continuing to explore new ways of being and doing the church with you all and you know that's really what it's all about greg right i mean the pandemic can can stop uh large gatherings but it can't stop the church from being the church not at all not at all uh and what i like to add another good thing that god's bringing out of this evil is this um you know in first corinthians paul writes to them and they're dealing with a moral issue and he says to them at one point uh though i can't be with you physically i'm with you in spirit and um scholars quibble about what exactly that means but all of them agree that he's not just given a sort of affectionate little idiomatic phrase like oh my heart goes out to you in in the body of christ he was aware that he is in some real sense present with them with his particular congregation um yes you were united in the body of christ as a whole but there's a particularity to the kind of unity that paul's talking about and see i don't think we western folks think that way naturally um i don't think we we naturally think about the the the way which woodland hills as a expression of the body of christ uh has its own kind of spiritual unity so in this time when we can be uh in physical proximity with one another as much as we'd like to i'm a hugger man i i miss your hugs i don't know if that's ever coming back but i hope it does maybe i have to wear masks before you hug her we'll have rules like that but anyways i'm a hugger i really miss getting together and for all the other reasons that we enjoy getting together celebrating together that day as paul said that day is coming but it's not now so let this be a time where we flex a muscle maybe we didn't even know we had uh and it's a muscle of our spiritual unity i'd like to have us during this season now commit for however long it's going to go forward but will you commit maybe this become a regular practice but to commit to covering woodland hills uh church and all the different ministries for the weekend service and the children's and the youth and just include as part of your regular prayer and intentionality here god make this church all that this church can be and remember that we are the church the church is not a building we've said that so long you know it's maybe we forget how how important that is this is a season where we're being forced to learn how important that is you can't shut down the church people say well when's the church going to open no we are the church and and and uh this is a chance for us to uh express that spiritual unity uh in maybe in ways that we haven't before paul used the best technology of his day to do the best he could given that he couldn't be physically with the corinthians he wrote a letter that's the best technology they had well we have a few more advantages than he had and we want to use as paul said we want to use and explore all those different ways of staying connected when we can't be together physically as much as we'd like to i want to encourage all of us then to be in disciplined prayer about this praying about the unity envisioning the unity i encourage folks to gather online and as much as possible and as you're doing that is let's stay aware of the spiritual unity that unites us i encourage us to get together physically as much as possible following the guidelines of the state keeping social distancing whatever but like paul let's do the best we can within the limits that are are set here during the season god can grow us in ways that maybe we otherwise could never have been grown we're growing in terms of numbers of people because of this but even more importantly i want to grow in depth because of this we love you guys we miss you guys and we look forward to the time when we can get together on the weekend services the way we used to and celebrate together until then we're with you in spirit let's stay one in spirit let's flex that muscle god bless you guys [Music] we could have tons of angels [Music] we can move mountains with our faith we could give everything away but if we don't have love you're left with nothing we could see blind eyes open [Music] know all the mysteries of our faith we could sing all the highest praise but if we don't have love we're left with nothing people love god rise up and shine god's of love world we are love is what holds it all together love never fails it never dies there is no deeper truth we know god is love our god is rise up and shine god's love we are the light of the world of the world though [Music] all we need is [Music] [Music] rise up and shine of cause world yeah [Music] slower amen let's continue our worship to the lord this morning to join us [Music] i lift my hands see they [Music] to your promise oh [Music] [Music] always enough let the fullness of your love be all on me all i need [Music] [Music] me [Music] and i will find my life in you you're always enough always [Music] you you're all we need lord we find all of our life in you we recognize that if we have you don't need anything else let's sing this out together church 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 not lifted up and 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 and i will find my life in you you're always in love always [Music] you're always enough be all i need all i [Music] you're everything [Music] enough for will me my life in you you're always enough always enough and let the fullness [Music] amen we will find our life in you god let the fullness of your love be all that we need god give us a picture of what that looks like right now let's just take a second and ask him what that looks like for you what it would look like to get the fullness of life from him to really fully believe that all we need is him i don't know about y'all but with this pandemic it is really easy to see all of the things that i used to get my life from that are no more so much has gone away so much has gone away things really good things have gone away and even in the really really good things i find that it's really easy to get life from those things god is the giver of really good gifts and what would it look like as worshipers this morning to lay everything at his feet to surrender our life to him to say god we want to get our life from you this morning what does that look like he will never let you down say that to yourself he will never let me down he will not it is a promise that he makes and he is so good do you believe that this morning that he is so so good let's sing about his goodness together sing this with me let the king of my heart be the mountain where i run the fountain i drink from oh he is my song let the king of my heart be the shadow where i hide the ransom for my life oh he is my song tell him you are good you're good [Music] you are good you're good you are good you're good [Music] you are good you're good [Music] and let the king of my heart be the wind inside my sails the anchor in the waves oh here's my song sing it out and let the king of my heart be the fire inside my veins the egg of my days oh he is my song let's sing that verse again lift it up let the king be the wind inside my sails [Music] the day you are good you're good [Music] [Music] [Music] you're [Music] you're never you're never gonna let me down [Music] yes [Music] yes you're never gonna let me [Music] me [Music] let's sing that chorus one more time lift your voice you are good you're good you are good you're good all the time you are good yes you're good amen thank you for being here with us worshiping with us i just have to say that the promise that god is good is something that i know we lean on so much right now and i hope that you can receive that and lean on it as well we are so distant all over the world but we are together because of the spirit of god that dwells in each of us and so we thank you for worshiping with us entering into that place of just honoring god and receiving from him his abundant perfect love thank you so much woodland hills we're glad that you're joining us my name is shawna boren i'm one of the pastors here and we pray for you all we believe that god is present with you all and we are just honored that you choose to watch us via however you're watching us so thanks again for that i also want to send a special shout out to all of the young adults who are here locally if you're age 18 to 20 something we want to let you know or in fact remind you that vessels the young adult minister here has been meeting and uh in safe ways according to covet plan and they are doing that and if you would like to join in you are invited to come and be a part of that just check it out online because like i said there is a coveted plan in place but that's for all you local young adults out there we would love just to connect with you in that way and we have talked all summer long about our discipleship school soma and that is another thing that we are forging forward with although we're being careful about it and we have reduced the amount of students that we're taking in this year so they can be their own bubble but there is still time if that's been on your heart and you've been praying about whether or not to be a part of soma this year this fall you uh this is kind of like your last call you still have time to get an application in and to be a part of that beautiful kingdom school discipleship school it's going to be amazing we also want to let you know that today as a part of our service as a part of our worship we will be taking communion together and so begin now to prepare your hearts and think about what you have right where you are whether you're at home in a park at work wherever you are just think about what you could grab that could represent to you the body and blood of jesus and greg will lead us through communion later on it's another way in which we can come together in the spirit while we're so physically distant now we're going to continue worshipping and we're going to do that by taking up our offering and so if you give regularly to woodland hills thank you we we value that very much we want to remind you that you can do that on our church's app but also on the website and so we're just going to pray and we're going to thank god for all the ways in which he is good all the ways in which he shows up for us and even in those times when we don't necessarily feel his presence we can have an assurance of knowing that he is there i pray that he does touch you in a special way today let's pray jesus i thank you for your goodness i thank you that you are our anchor i thank you that you do never let us down i thank you for everyone who tunes in lord morning noon night however wherever they do that i pray that you would break through for them that you would break through and be so very real to them and be exactly what is needed lord i thank you for the the ways that people have supported us and joined us during this endeavor during this time the ways that people have come together to help us further the kingdom message and the call that we feel to be in the community in the city and around the world we pray that you would bless bless everything that is given uh thank you for all that uh that that that buy in and join in and and feel a part of of what is happening just in our little neck of the woods lord we love you we thank you and we give you all the praise in jesus name [Music] amen [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning woodland hills good morning morning yes thank you thank you yeah yeah the crowds are going crazy i'm greg boyd the teaching pastor here at woodland hills and i want to welcome all of you so glad that you're joining us here this morning uh i can't be present with you like the apostle paul told the corinthians but uh i'm with you in spirit and there's a real unity that comes with that and you're with me in spirit uh as you're listening to this message and it's related to communion i like it to imagine the other folks who are watching this and just kind of picture them in your mind and sense the unity that we have in the body of christ that is expressed as woodland hills church we're going to be taking communion later on as shauna said and imagine some folks if you come from certain traditions as i did we taught that the the elements are sacred and and they have to have they have to be special so the idea of just grabbing a cracker and water or grape juice or whatever you have might seem kind of uh sacrilegious and i get that i totally get that but here's the thing you know they didn't prepare for communion when they had the last supper they were just having a supper and then jesus said hey take the bread and take the cup it was what was before them um and i think the ordinariness is kind of the point it's totally ordinary bread totally ordinary wine but jesus infuses it with this incredible significance and that's what god always does he takes ordinary things ordinary people and uses them and breathes sacredness into them so anything will do if your heart is to represent the body and blood of christ all right so we're in this series on the sermon on the mount and we're up to verse six uh matthew 5 6 and it says this blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled they will be filled there's another verse i want to just mention briefly before we get into this and we won't get to either these verses for about another 15-20 minutes but just put them in the cranium there in 1st john 5 21 the last verse of first john he ends by saying beloved children little children guard yourselves from idols and you're probably wondering what does that have to do with blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness but you'll see here in a little bit i want to start off with this um you know when i was 13 years old i i had a buddy hitchhiked down to downtown st paul uh if you're 13 years old don't ever do that in fact it's not a good idea to ever do that um but uh yeah so today i don't take my example here i have a 13 year old grandson soul and i when i see him i think to myself i was that age when i hit downtown st paul it was just i was i'm lucky to be alive um so so and we were going downtown saint paul his friend and i uh we played in the band together and we were going for nefarious purposes and that's all i'm going to say about that because my grandkids might be watching that but don't do that either you know if you don't know what the word nefarious is don't do it but i didn't have enough supervision i guess and so we went downtown st paul and uh went to music land and spent the day doing things by the late afternoon we were really really hungry and we didn't have very much money because we did buy some things um and uh but my friend had heard about this new chain that was coming out new food chain uh this is like 1970 right uh and it was the white castle it was white castle i thought the name was really strange why would anyone named white castle and they built them all those white castles but he said they sell burgers there back in those days for 10 cents for a dime you can get a burger and and so we headed we've headed over there got there um and we found out why they only cost a dime it's because they're only about the size of a maybe silver dollar if that and they have all sorts of holes poked up so like little wafers but they put a lot of onions on it there's not much meat there and there's a whole lot of grease but it tastes great so we go there and uh we started off with with four we got four piece and that tasted great but we weren't yet satisfied so we went back and got four more and it tasted great uh now i don't think we're really hungry after that but we i had 40 cents left over and you know why have that in your pocket so we only got four more we had four more piece and it tasted great we felt satisfied for 15 minutes maybe 20 max and then it began to feel funny on the inside i mean i hate it when you can feel things going on in your stomach and it starts to make noises uh i then we begin to get cramps i it was bad it was you know when you're 13 you don't know a thing about how the intestines work and what kind of grief it causes your intestines to pour large amounts of grease in at one time so we're learning fast so we had to go to the bathroom really really bad and so we they're desperately looking around at stores that have bathrooms in them finally go into macy's and uh take care of business there and as i was sitting in there on the toilet in grief of sweating i think i haven't said grease poisoning or something um we were also next to each other in the stalls and so we were also laughing because it was so gross it was laughing at each other it was but i wonder to myself how could something that tastes so good going in be so nasty coming out how could it do such damage in your stomach it seemed like it was so good now that's kind of an extreme example of of this but uh we all do things like that don't we or at least a lot of us do where you go to the movie theater for example and and and you know like you smell the popcorn it smells so good and so you get a big bucket of popcorn you get a lot of butter on it you know it's great for your heart and you put all that seasoning salt which is also really good for your blood pressure and then you scarf the thing down and it's so good especially if you have like one of those cherry freezies next to it or something and then when you get done with it halfway through the movie or towards the end whenever 15 minutes later maybe not even that you feel oh why did i do that do you ever ask that question after a gross meal why did i eat that why it's oh you feel gross it's like you have a bowling ball in your stomach it doesn't feel much better on the other end of it either so we we do that it just goes to show that your taste buds my taste buds are not reliable guides to what is healthy and what's not if you want to have a meal that you feel good about afterwards uh and if you want to be on the road to health you can't let your appetites have free reign right uh you know a few sliders now and then we used to call those white castles and i know why uh gut bombs or or grease bombs or sliders is the one that we use most frequently because they slide right through you safe at first nice slide you don't slide in the first studio safe at home yeah you slide right in there it's like it's nasty um but yeah at some point a few few of those things aren't going to kill you and and having popcorn now and then is is a delight but at some point before you get to 12 burgers and at some point before you get to the bottom of that bucket there needs to be a part of your brain called the reason that says hey you've had enough any more of this and it's not going to be good got to learn to curb our appetites now what's true of the body is also an analogous way true of the soul there are cravings that we have that we can't give free reign to uh there there are desires the appetites there which if we consume them we'll make or to consume too much of them will make us sick here's the thing we are born hungry uh we're born needy at the core of our being there is a desperate need a non-negotiable need a need that won't go away and the need is is is for a sense of being loved it's it's for a sense you need a sense of feeling like you're significant uh worthwhile and you need to feel secure in that and we all need relationships with people uh that that that make us feel loved and make us feel significant make us feel secure but there's a dimension of our soul the neediness of our soul that only god can meet only god can meet um i often if you've been around for any length of time you know that i i beat up on saint augustine quite often uh don't mean to be mean or anything but i think that most of the nonsense in western theology and i think there's a good bit of nonsense in it is traceable back to him but today just to show that i'm a magnanimous person and and i don't just kind of write someone off because i disagree with them and i consider augustine to be a brother in christ to show that i'm going to give a positive quote from saint augustine right now and this isn't the first one i did it about 18 years ago too so there you go so here's what he said this is from his book the confessions a really interesting book written in the uh fourth century or fifth century actually early fifth and uh it's it's called the first introspective memoir in western history it's a very it's a very interesting book though i disagree with a lot of theology he says this thou speaking to god thou hast made us for thyself oh lord and our heart is restless until it finds rest in thee our heart is restless until it finds rest in thee brother augustin you nailed it man that is so right we've got a a hole in our soul that's restless until we find god and and he brings rest to that soul because our soul was created for him in fact god created us with this this this neediness this vacuum this restlessness if you will precisely function as a homing device to lead us back to him okay pointing in that direction the follow follow the the the inner restlessness the inner unfulfillment that inner hunger and it will lead you to god absolutely and see we're spiritually healthy to the degree that our homing device has led us to our source of life and that is god our creator we're we're healthy to the degree that we're letting god meet the deepest needs in our heart we're we're spiritually healthy to the degree that we're learning how to feast on god we're spiritually healthy to the degree that our innermost need for love and and significance and security is found in our relationship with god through jesus christ we find fulfillment in that now unfortunately um we're born broken and we're born in a broken world that is ruled by the cosmic deceiver and the result of that is that our homing device which is supposed to bring us true north to our creator it gets it gets disoriented reoriented misdirected so the things that we sell that hunger there but now if it's pointing if you're not pointing at the creator it's pointing at something else and we think we're hungry for that so you feel this restlessness this emptiness this unfulfillment but instead of finding our life in god we think to ourselves gosh you know if only i had that this or the other thing i'd feel more fulfilled you know if only if only i had a bigger house and a better car maybe a a boat like my neighbor joe has if only i was if only i had was more compatible with my husband if only i i was the boss of my company if only if only if only if i had more money a bigger bank account or whatever well then i'd be satisfied and it never works we hunger and thirst for those things we chase after those things but there's no fulfillment in that take uh joe schmoe uh he's hungry restless and he buys into this american idea that that you can actually get fulfillment by through money and possessions and things like that so he chases after that and let's say he's a privileged guy a lucky guy got some things going for him so he makes a million dollars is he satisfied well for a little bit but in all likelihood that that that restlessness will return and if he still has his homing device pointed towards money he goes from the 1 million and will not work just as hard to get 10 million but that proves unsatisfying as well so he works just as hard to get 100 million and he'll be working just as hard to get a billion why because he's trying to scratch an itch in the core of his soul he's trying to meet this need that only god can meet but as long as he keeps on thinking that it's out there in the money and the possessions or whatever he keeps striving for that i i did a little research on on workaholic millionaires and billionaires and there's a lot of them uh i found this one article where this guy was saying he was uh he's a reporter but he was invited over this wealthy ceo of some big company and uh he and some friends they were to spend a leisurely evening together in the course of three hours in this leisurely evening he says that he the this guy he uh wrote 18 emails and took six phone calls and the time that they had actually talking to one another they always talked about business in fact they came up with a new business model and uh for a certain company at the end of the night he says to the guy that ceo says to all of them hey thanks for joining me in a relaxing and leisurely evening as we first thinking what are you talking about that was all work but see that's all this guy knew he was chasing after this it's not about the money i why do you keep on working like this when you've got more money than you could spend in one lifetime well the answer is it's not about the money it's not about the possessions he thinks it is but it's not what it's about is this need in the core of his being and see the truth is that you can have all the money in the world and you're not going to find permanent satisfaction you can have all the fame i have all the possessions of the world experience all the pleasures of the world the comforts of the world you can get everything that you think you want and it's not going to fill you it's going to leave you in the end empty what's happened is our homing devices have gotten hijacked and it causes brings grief and unfulfillment on us the biblical word for trying to meet that innermost need that only god can meet the biblical word for for trying to meet that by something else other than god the word is idolatry now we often think of idols as these statues you know that pagans worship and stuff and that certainly is an idol it was common most common i suppose in the ancient world but an idol is anything that we try to use that's not god to play a god role in our life any time something is scratching the edge that only god's supposed to scratch that's an idol and we worship it now you may think to yourself well i i would never worship something in this created world uh other than god paul talks about this in romans 1 when he outlines idolatry and he says they they turn from the creator to the create creation and they start to worship things in the creation um now you think well i would never worship something in the creation and that's probably because you're thinking of worship as along the lines of what we just did singing a song and and praise and stuff like that that's where this is what worship is but the truth is is that worship is anything that you ascribe ultimate worth to and anything that you try to drive ultimate worth from that is functionally your god and that is what an idol is the thing is anything can become an idol uh any advantage that you might have anything that makes you stand out a little bit that can become an idol look how pretty you are look how handsome you are i always struggle with that one you know maybe you're good at throwing a football you're gonna dance or whatever it's fine to be good at those things it's fine to be pretty and handsome uh it's fine to even feel good about that but don't it should never get to the point where that's what makes your life worth living that's what makes you feel good that's what makes you feel significant no that's supposed to be rooted in in in god alone uh sometimes people try to make it make an idol out of the tribe that you belong in the nation that you belong in folks that are desperately hungry and don't have anything else going for them might decide hey it's the color of our skin that's what makes it significant it's superior to others that can be an idol that's your god but can also be a god fighting against those folks if you're deriving life from the fact that you're not like them and you're righteous you see anything can become an idol if we're trying to feed off of it and if you get what you're striving for you might not ever get it and that's why we live with this anxiety and thinking that we're going to miss the show here if we don't get this but even if you do get what you're striving for people notice how pretty or how handsome you are or how good you throw a football you get to the top of the co you make the money or whatever it feels good it tastes good when you're at top it's uh like the sliders man they taste good going down it feels good in that moment ah i made it i'm king of the world you got what you're striving for you got your 100 million you got your car you got your boat people recognize and respect you for your intelligence and how good you can sing even when you get that it feels good but it never ever lasts it just doesn't so it's just but for a moment yummy but in fact after a while it leaves you you're empty again and then begin to get spiritually sick if you keep devouring that idol thinking that it's going to satisfy you keep more and more of the idol that that will be satisfied no it makes you sick you're devouring the equivalent of spiritual grease bombs your soul was never meant to devour idols any more than my 13 year old stomach was meant to devour a bucket of grease and it will make you sick listen to what it says in proverbs uh here uh the wisdom of god is being portrayed as or depicted as a as a distinct person and it's the wisdom of god who is speaking here and the wisdom of god says for whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the lord but those who miss me injure themselves those who who don't hit the mark injure themselves and all who hate me the wisdom of god love death see here's the thing if you find the if you find god and therefore find god's wisdom and are getting life from that well you're going to be full you'll find a fullness there but if we miss that um we we bring injury on ourselves we're making ourselves sick we're doing something unnatural our homing device is pointing in the wrong direction and if we become resolved in that to the point where we're no longer even interested in ever finding the true source if we come to despise that true source well this the wisdom of god says that you love death now here's why god's the source of life god's a source of life and and we find fullness in him but the to turn away from that is by definition death it brings death the first symptom of that is that you start to get sick but if you get locked in in the other direction well it ultimately brings death it's not that god's gonna you know come down and and punish you because you you you turned your homing device in the wrong direction he's not going to come down and kill you because god's not a killer but rather the very act of turning away from god is an act of stepping toward death by definition the judgment of god isn't that he comes down and kills you he doesn't have to do that the judgment of god is when god has to let you go you also find this in romans 1. god in his mercy hangs on to us to say don't go down that road don't go around that road tries to keep us in check pulling us back his mercy gives us time for repentance the bible says but if we become obstinate in rejecting that there comes a point as you read in romans 1 where god has to let you go that's the judgment of god throughout the bible you find that the punishment for sin is built into the sin itself sin is inevitably sooner or later self-punishing it's a little bit like this if you go and eat 12 white castle burgers in one sitting god doesn't have to come down and make your stomach upset and make you sick no the sliders do all the work for them it's built into the nature of greece that if you consume large amounts of it it will make you sick well that's how it is with all sin so if you're not getting your life from christ but you're trying to get it from this that or the other thing all of them idols well you're in the process of making yourself sick if you continue down that road and get obstinate with it and and ultimately end up hating god and go into eternity in that direction well the relation the result is death you forfeit the invitation to eternal life and that is my understanding of what hell ultimately is okay so with that background let's now uh consider the meaning of matthew 5 6 blessed are those who are righteous for they will be filled blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled when we hear the word righteous most of us western people we think immoral categories uh oh that person's righteous now no they use it in all sorts of different words like right i don't know what it means today but but but but the the ordinary meaning of it and well in the west was a moral thing man you're righteous you're just you're holy the biblical concept of righteousness encompasses moral righteousness but goes way beyond that as with so many things in the bible uh righteousness is a covenantal concept covenant of concept and you're covenantally righteous if you are keeping covenant with another in terms of the covenant you're righteous if you're rightly related to your covenant partner or partners so ultimately at the core of this concept of righteousness is right relatedness right relatedness so biblically speaking you're righteous to the degree that you have a right relationship with god a right relationship to yourself a right relationship with others and a right relationship to the earth and the animal kingdom all that's involved in the concept of righteousness you're righteous if you're submitted to god and are getting your core need for for life for your worth and significance you're getting that from him and when you're getting that from him it empowers you to now have begin to have a right relationship with yourself with others and with the earth and the animal kingdom it's all right there that relationship that righteousness being rightly related to god yourself others and the earth in the animal kingdom that is just what the kingdom of god looks like when god is fully reigning in a human life it looks like righteousness rightly related to everything and even to yourself so to hunger and thirst for righteousness is the hunger and thirst for the kingdom it's the hunger and thirst for for right relatedness in all aspects of your life let me add this to the message i mentioned at the very beginning of the series that the sermon on the mount isn't like a bunch of rules that we're supposed to try to carry out and obey in order to get to heaven not a bunch of hoops that we're supposed to jump through in order to try to get ourselves to heaven if we could if we could get rightly related with god on our own effort by obeying the rules on our own power well then we wouldn't need a savior i i mentioned this in the second sermon in this series that the sermon on the mount rather than being a bunch of rules the ethical thing it actually is an expression of the person of jesus christ you can't ever he can't ever separate the sermon on the mount from the the preacher of the sermon on the mount and so the sermon on the mount it describes the life of christ and it describes the life of all those who are in christ who are following christ uh here's a quote that i gave several weeks ago but i want to read it again because it's so good it's from stanley howard wass who is one of the best anabaptist theologians alive today in my opinion and here's what he says it makes all the difference who the proclaimer is namely jesus the jesus who proclaimed the inauguration of the new age that's just the kingdom the new age has come the kingdom is here and he does not just proclaim it he is the inauguration of this kingdom this this new age the message of the sermon cannot be separated abstracted out from the messenger if jesus is the eschatological messiah that just means the messiah of this new age this this kingdom then he has made it possible through his death and resurrection for us to live in accordance with the life envisioned on the sermon on the mount we can't do it on our own power but in christ because of his death and resurrection we can we're empowered to so then he says the sermon i love this line the sermon is but the form of his life and his life is the prism through which the sermon is refracted i love it so see it's it's it's jesus christ the savior who who ultimately is our right relatedness with god he is our right relatedness with god he is our righteousness paul says that all the time we have the righteousness of christ we have the right relatedness of christ why because we're in christ and everything that's true of christ now becomes true of us and once we get that's what gets us rightly related with god so now we're getting our source of life from him and that's what then empowers us through christ to begin to be practice right relatedness with ourself with others and with the earth and the animal kingdom this is why jesus presents himself at times in the gospels as the food of god the the as as the life that comes from god that we're we're to be consuming the most graphic place and the most interesting place where he did this is john chapter six uh he's talking to a jewish audience here and they're kind of obstinate they're they're they're resisting him and so he says this starting with verse 35 i am the bread of life whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty and then several verses later he says for truly i tell you now i will warn you this is kind of graphic uh and and to first century jewish audience and be very offensive and it might be offensive to some of you uh but but just there's a point to it so just hang in there unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and i will raise them up at the last day for my flesh is real food it's not like those sliders no this is real food and my blood is real drink whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and i in them just as the living father throughout the new testament throughout the bible actually you find the living god why because he's the source of all life just as the source of all life my father sent me and i live because of my father so the one who sends who feeds on me will live because of me he's not saying you'll live biologically because because they're already biologically alive he's saying you'll find the fullness of life you'll find that the thing that meets that innermost need in in in in your soul now jews didn't believe in drinking blood at all if orthodox jews to this day they drain all the blood out of the the meat when before they eat it um it goes back to genesis chapter nine so the idea of not only drinking blood but drinking the blood of another human being and eating the flesh of another human being would have been absolutely revolting to them absolutely attention-grabbing for sure and i think that's why jesus uses this offensive graphic imagery he's saying in essence i'm what you're hungry for i'm what you're looking for you go around trying to consume all the stuff over here trying to get full but you know what's making you sick and it never leaves you satisfied the life that you're looking for is found in me consume me is what he's saying consume me and we can see the importance of this idea of consuming jesus even though it's shocking but then we see the importance of it in the fact that this is what jesus shared at the last these are the words jesus shared at the last supper take my flesh take my blood all that just represents the broken flesh and the shed blood represents the self-sacrificial love of god the love that's embodied in christ is the the life that we're to consume to consume jesus means that you cultivate a relationship with him um to consume jesus means that you spend time basking in his love letting him meet the needs in your life let him meet that core uh yearning that you have for significance and for and to be loved and to feel secure uh to to consume jesus means that when you invite them into every nook and cranny of your life the secret places the ugly places the dark places the shameful places you let them come in and shine light on that because that's how we get healed and that's how we're transformed to get all your fullness from christ see if we're if we're consuming the real food that our soul was made for not this unnatural stuff uh that that's not lined with the wisdom of god if we're consuming that see that is what frees us from the needs to chase after idols if you're full in christ you don't need to cling to anything let alone try to ring life out of it and that folks is the new testament's definition of freedom whom the sun sets free is free indeed john 8 32 that's what freedom is most of the anxiety and despair and depression and struggles that people have is because they're clinging to stuff and at some level you know this is unnatural and you we all know that's going to leave you sooner or later and that creates anxiety and now the rest but when you can just let it go now now in a position of being free it empowers us then to have a right relationship with god ourselves uh the earth and the animal kingdom this is the kingdom of god this is what it looks like when god reigns in human life this is god's will being done on earth as it is in heaven it's righteousness it's right relatedness so we're going to turn to taking communion now and communion is all about symbolically consuming the flesh and blood of of christ which is consuming the self-sacrificial love of god that we have in christ when we take the the elements we're saying uh we open ourselves up to to you all of you all of us are open to all of you we trust you to be our own our source of life we trust that what you did for us on the cross is true and we're going to live according to that we we we we and so there's a taking in aspect of this but there's also a pledge aspect because in any covenant there's two partners uh we thank him for being trustworthy towards us and then we pledge to be trustworthy towards him that's how the covenant works and so we're saying i will by the power of god strive to live the way jesus lived to love the way jesus loved i will strive to make all my relationships right relationships i will strive to guard myself against idols and i hope now you can see how important that is because those i th that idol craving is always there we just have to have the power to say no to it um we're now going to go into it our worship team is going to play a a reflective song if you don't yet have the elements ready this is the time to get those but as as as danny's playing i'd like us to just ask this question and ask it honestly and help ask the spirit to help you answer it honestly the question is this are you are you righteous do you have the righteousness of christ are you getting all the core needs of your soul met through your relationship with christ is there anything in your relationships with others and with the world that would fall under the category of idolatry where you're it's too imp it's okay to feel good about stuff but you don't use it to be the core of your life to get all your significance from that and and then the ultimate question is this when the spirit reveals to you that in fact you have an idol you you're sucking too much life off of this idol uh whatever that that may be the question is are you willing to surrender it will you bring it to the altar will you let it go um one final thing i'll say is sometimes people wonder how you know how can i how can i hunger and thirst for righteousness like either i'm hungry thirsty or i'm not how do you make yourself hungry and thirsty for right relatedness and the answer is that you but you see what you can do is get rid of the thing that's keeping you from from being hungry and thirsty it's like this if if you devour a chocolate cake you're not going to be hungry for healthy food a nice salad or something devouring the wrong food keeps you from being hungry for the right foods so also if you're consuming idols well that that dulls your appetite for the real food guard against idols surrender the idols and the hunger will will rise naturally you were born with that hunger it's always been there and it's only satisfied in jesus christ think about that as we now reflect and prepare our hearts for communion are you hurting broken within overwhelmed by the weight of your sin jesus is calling have you come to the end of yourself the thirst for a drink from the well jesus is calling oh come to the altar the father's arms are open wide forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of jesus [Music] leave behind your regrets and mistakes come today there's no reason to wait jesus is calling bring me sorrows and trade them for joy from the ashes a new life is born jesus is calling welcome to the altar [Music] jesus will come to the altar the father's arms blood of jesus oh what a savior [Music] is sing hallelujah christ is [Music] hallelujah christ is [Music] hallelujah [Music] him [Music] oh come to the altar the father's arms are open like forgiveness was born with the precious blood of jesus oh come the precious blood of [Music] jesus [Music] you know there's a reason why the last supper jesus had the last supper on the festival passover because the whole covenant that we're in is all about getting out of bondage getting free and heading towards the promised land uh the kingdom is about coming out from the bondage of our false gods it all comes down to this turning from false gods to the one true god to find true life and god was willing to pay whatever price was necessary to have that happen and so the night in which jesus was betrayed he took the bread it was common ordinary bread it was just set before them this is what they were going to eat or at least some of what they were going to eat and he took it and he broke it he said i've done this a million times that it still gets to me this is my body which is going to be broken for you so whenever you come together and eat do it in memory of me remember to consume me make me the healthy food of your life let's take the body of our lord together lord we invite you into every nook and cranny of our life [Music] the darkest places the unhealthy places invite him in let him all the way in he alone satisfies and then he took the cup he said this cup is the cup of the new covenant you see this is what we're doing here we're renewing our covenant vows here to trust and to be trustworthy he said this cup is is the cup of the new and everlasting covenant for this is my blood which is going to be shed for you so when you come together and drink remember to be drinking the life the self-sacrificial love that comes from jesus christ let's take it together [Music] amen amen father we thank you for caring for us in our bondage we thank you god for your love which does not diminish when we turn away from you and chase after false gods [Music] while we were chasing after false gods you've always been chasing after us and you found us and you're in the process of freeing us so lord i pray that we could learn how learn together how we can be getting life from you and only from you and then in your wisdom teach us how to be rightly related how to properly think about ourselves others the earth and the animal kingdom how to properly treat ourselves others there's the animal kingdom helps to live with jesus being the point of our story the bread of life in jesus name amen amen before i send you out i always want to say remember we have a muse cast that happens at four o'clock on tuesdays uh and that's something good takes this message and goes a little further with it uh if you are in need of anything uh have anything that could be prayed over um we encourage you to go to our prayer zoom rooms and uh someone would be would love to just pray with you there and and minister to you and then finally we have our our gathering groups uh and we encourage folks to be participating in that a lot of things going on here church has not shut down it never shuts down because we are the church god bless you guys go out and be the church this week you

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Length: 72min 44sec (4364 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 23 2020