Motley Crue
Transcript
Good morning, my name's Chet. How y'all doing? Grab your Bibles. Let's go to Mark chapter 1. We are currently taking a little time to walk through sections of the book of Mark to begin to understand what it looked like for the first followers of Jesus. And then from there, kind of saying, okay, how does that apply to us?
How do we do that? How does that look here in South Carolina in 2016? And so we've got two weeks left, and then we'll be moving on to other things in the fall. But I'm excited about today. I think what we're going to do is we're going to hop in, and we're just going to jump in and look at a couple of different passages, kind of right in a row, kind of quickly. We'll spend a little bit of time talking about them, but we're going to go through three passages in Mark chapter 1, 2, and 3, and then kind of just discover something together and talk a little bit about how that played out for them and then what that looks like for us.
So I'm going to pray, and then we'll jump in. God, we thank you for the opportunity we have to study your word, and we pray that through your Holy Spirit you would help us respond, help us respond to the truth of the gospel, help us respond to you in the way that you desire your church to be. We love you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so we're going to start with a passage we've read a couple of times.
We're going to be in Mark chapter 1, starting in verse 16, and we're going to go through this one the quickest. But it's Jesus calling his first disciples. So it says, I love that Mark puts that note in there, that they were fishermen, because he would assume that you thought them throwing a net into the sea was weird otherwise. So he's like, they were throwing a net in the sea. They were fishermen. Like he clarifies for you.
So anyway, Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. We looked at this passage last week and talked about how we, as Jesus calls us, were called to give up what is primary to us to follow him. And that's how that works for everybody.
But what we're seeing right here is that Jesus calls four guys who are fishermen to follow him. Now they were, James and John were most likely younger than Simon and Andrew because James and John were still with their father. Simon and Andrew were not. They are fishermen, which is a respectable trade. Put them in kind of a, they would have been rougher guys, but it's a blue collar kind of middle class Job depending on how well their fishing business goes. So it seems like the Zebedee has a couple of boats maybe and a couple of people already working for him.
So whereas James and Simon and Andrew were just kind of leaving their boat, James and John are leaving their dad with hired guys. So he's got more of a crew going for him. But this is kind of middle class Jewish men that begin to follow him. They would have been, we find out more about them later, but they're devout Jews. They're followers of Judaism. So they would have gone and celebrated the festival, the feasts and gone to the temple for sacrifices and would have been a part of a synagogue.
They were normal average. Jews in first century Judaism. Okay. So that's who starts following Jesus in John chapter one. And I'm not John chapter one. They do start following in John chapter one.
Also, that doesn't have anything to do with what we're talking about today. They follow him in Mark chapter one, what we just read. Let's go to Mark chapter two, verse 13 through 16. We're going to look at the next disciple that Jesus picks up. So it should be on the same page or just one page over verse 13.
He went out again beside the sea. So he's in the same general area and all the crowd was coming to him and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed him. Okay.
So he sees a tax collector named Levi. Luke calls him Matthew. That was the same name, just his Jewish name or his Hellenistic kind of Greek name. But Levi and Matthew, the same guy. And he sees a tax collector and he says, follow me. Now, this is immediately an issue for the other four guys following Jesus. tax collectors.
Um, um, because tax collectors were not liked in this culture. Now we, we, we, we're not fans of the IRS mostly just because they take money from us. I mean, we're pro having schools and roads and ambulances, but, uh, we, we really don't want the IRS to take any more than they have to. Um, tax collectors at this point, we're a little bit different. So we're in, uh, Judea, which is a traditionally Jewish place that would be Israelites would live there.
And they were free up until, um, BC 63 when the Romans took over. This is AD 30 ish at this point. So it's been about the amount of time from us to world war two or a little bit before world war two, when Rome took over and subjugated the Jewish people. Tax collectors were Jewish people who worked for Rome, taking taxes from other Jewish people to pay Rome to occupy the territory. So they took money to pay for the Roman soldiers who lived in the area.
It would be as if, uh, Pearl Harbor was just the beginning of the Japanese attack. They make landfall and we begin to fight with Japan. And while we're doing that, uh, Germany takes over the rest of Europe and then they attack the Eastern seaboard and they begin to, uh, assault us from the Atlantic. And then eventually the United States caves in and crumbles to the access powers and Japan and Germany meet in the middle, uh, in Kansas and high five each other. And the U S falls and is subjugated by the access powers in world war two. That amount of time of us being underneath German rule and your neighbor, your friend, people, you are live near work for Germany, taxing you to pay for German soldiers to rule the United States.
That's what Matthew did. The Romans were not, uh, to be trifled with. And whenever there was an insurrection or rebellion, they would roll in, capture everybody and execute them. They've, there's times where they would crucify people leading up into cities where the whole roads leading into the cities were of crucified individuals on the road leading into the city. To show you this city tried to rebel against us. Many people most likely knew of family members and friends that had been executed by Rome and tax collectors worked for Rome to keep them there.
They would have been ceremonially unclean. So they, Matthew would not, or Levi would not have, uh, been a part of normal Jewish life, would not have gone to the temple, would not have celebrated, uh, the feasts. Uh, most tax collectors were excommunicated from their, excommunicated from their synagogue. He's a traitor. To most Jews. It's possible that these four men who were fishermen actually had to pay him taxes.
He's at a tax booth on a road that many people would have brought their supplies down. And he has full authority to walk over to you and to assess the value of whatever you have and take whatever tax he wants. He just looks through your stuff and says, okay, this is how much you owe me. And if you can't pay him, he takes it out of the cargo that you're taking. So they may have had to pay him in fish or money on their way back from markets, but tax collectors were not appreciated, tolerated, but mostly hated.
And Jesus walks over to him while he's at his tax booth and says, you're going to follow me. So if you're Simon and Andrew and James and John, immediately, earlier when you got called to follow Jesus, you were thinking, this is amazing. I get to follow Jesus. I must be kind of special. There's got to be something. What did he see in me?
And then he walks over and he asked a tax collector to follow him. And immediately they have to be rethinking this. They've got to be this moment of like, looking at each other like, are we okay with this? Like what? I mean, he asked him, but what if he actually follows him? And it says that Matthew does, gets up and follows him.
And it's like when you, when you're in high school and you got called to the office with a bunch of other students, when you showed up, you looked at the other students to try to figure out like what y'all had in common. Like, are these the type of people who are here because they're in trouble? Are these the type of people who are here because they've done something good that smart people did? Like, do you know what I'm saying? Like they're looking around, you're trying to decide, why am I here? Why are you here?
What's this crew here? And so as soon as he picks a tax collector, the disciples have to be going, okay, this is different than I thought it was going to be. Let's keep reading. And as he reclined at table in his house, that's Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus, when Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
So when they, the Pharisees and the scribes see this, Jesus is having a party with Levi and Levi's friends. So it's a bunch of tax collectors and sinners. They immediately asked, why are you, why does he hang out with these people? Sinners to them was a whole class of people. So we use the term sinner as we're all sinners.
We've all fallen short. None of us lived up to God. We've all rebelled. They had sinners as a class of person, an identifiable class of people that had chosen to live a life outside of following Judaism. That, that were marked by their sin, by their vocation, by their decisions, by their lifestyle. They were marked by their sin.
So it'd be similar if, you know, at the beginning of maybe middle school, everybody had to show up and stand in the gym for a little while before they would let you go to class. It'd be similar if you changed up your patterns, and then one of your friends came to you after about a week and said, hey, when'd you start hanging out with rednecks? Hey, when did you become best friends with the goth kids? Hey, when'd you get so smart? Nice khakis. Like, whatever.
Like, you've begun to hang out with some identifiable crowd at this point, and that's what they come over and say, why, what is he doing? Like, he shouldn't be hanging out with this group of people, these sinners, and what we know is the disciples didn't answer him, Jesus answered them. I'm willing to bet the disciples at this point didn't have a good answer. They don't really know. They're just following Jesus like they're, he called them to, they're going to. They've committed.
I don't know if they had a good answer at this point. I think they showed up to this party and saw that, it was a bunch of tax collectors and sinners who, as they, as good Jews would not have spent time with. I think they walked in. It'd be like, it'd be like, maybe in high school for you, you get invited by a friend to a party, and you show up, and when you show up, you walk down into a basement, and there's 15 people playing Dungeons and Dragons. And for you, you just immediately think, oh no, I've entered the wrong basement. This is not, like, I don't, I don't know how to talk to these people.
I don't have any kind of, I don't know what to do here. Maybe, when I just told that story, you thought, no, that sounds like a wonderful basement. Okay, so for you, maybe you got invited to a party after a football game, and you walk into a room, and everybody in there is still reeks of sweat. Like, I don't know. I don't know what it is for you, but that's, that was them. They walked into a place where they immediately walked in the room and thought, oh no, I'm not, like, I shouldn't, I shouldn't be here.
This doesn't fit for me. And that's, that's the, the four guys that were following when they have a party with tax collectors and sinners. But Jesus immediately, as he begins his ministry, says, no, I'm, I'm breaking down some walls on who's okay and who's not okay, and on who we're going to be friends with, and who we're going to welcome, and who we're going to love. I'm not following the, the set rules. So you need to go ahead and get geared up for that.
And it gets worse. Let's go to chapter three. Now this is the twelve apostles, or the twelve disciples. I just want you to read you this list, and they stick this guy at the end that I think is very interesting for us. All right, almost at the end.
So we're in chapter three, verse thirteen. And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. These are the guys that are going to make it in the picture of the Last Supper. When he told them, hey, everybody sit on this side of the table if you want to be in the picture. These guys? Okay.
And he appointed twelve whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. We're going to talk about that call next week, being sent out to preach and cast out demons. He appointed the twelve, Simon, whom he gave the name Peter, which just means rock, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder, Andrew and Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, so that's, he uses that name instead of Levi here, and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Okay, that's second to last guy, Simon the Zealot.
Your version may say, Simon the Canaanite, and it means the same thing. That is a political party that was as anti-Rome as you could get. They believed that this land was given to them, to their ancestors. The land belonged to Israel and his people. The land belonged to the Jewish people, and no one else had any claim or right over it. Rome did not need to be there.
Rome had no right to be there. Not only was Rome's oppression and subjugation, a stench in their nostrils, but Rome's religion was as well. And they fought actively, to have a free Jewish people. Now, in AD 6, so that would be a couple, 20 years before this time, Rome put out, said they were going to do a census. They were going to take, and count everybody there, and the Zealots, the Canaanians said, no, nobody, nobody take part in their census. If you answer their questions, if you take part in their census, if you show up and do what they say, you are actively saying, they have a right to be here, and they do not have a right to be here.
That was one of their first, kind of, teamed up political things, that the Zealots did. They get increasingly more aggressive. They eventually have a group of Zealots, kind of after this time, but this, it's the, follows the same thought process, that are called the Sicari, that just means dagger men, and they actively worked for destabilization through terrorist Acts, on people who were friendly to Rome. So when they would get, they would have daggers underneath cloaks, in large crowds, and in the large crowds, they would walk up, and stab somebody, just to make large crowds, be a scary place to be, if you were friendly towards Rome, and to actively try to destabilize Rome.
So this guy, Simon the Zealot, so much the Zealot, that it had to be listed next to his name. Like if you have a friend called Dave the Libertarian, I have a guess, on what kind of conversations, how conversations are going to go with this guy. This is Simon the Zealot. Like this is, he wears this on his sleeve. Okay, now can you imagine, we don't know how Simon became, a part of Jesus' followers, but I'm assuming, the first time he and Matthew, had a conversation, it got very uncomfortable, very quickly. What do you do?
Oh, I was a tax collector. No, for real. Don't even joke like that. And Matthew's like, ha ha, ha ha ha, ha, ha ha. I mean, I'm assuming, you know, like if you have a group of friends, and you have, you know, your friend Dave the Libertarian, and you have another friend, that like, you're hanging out, and you realize all of a sudden, like, oh, these two people don't ever need to talk to each other. Like, I need to, if they get close to each other, I have to like, start a diversion.
Like, you see them starting a conversation, you go, ah, just knock over a lamp or something, because there's just no way, this is going to keep the party good. Breaking the lamp was better, than what was going to happen if they talked. These are both in the 12 followers of Jesus. Because Jesus begins his ministry, and what he says is, I choose who follows me, and I'm breaking down the standards for you, on who's okay, and who's not okay, and who can be in, and who has to be out, and who God loves, and who God doesn't love, and who's welcome, and who isn't. That's what Jesus does from the very beginning.
The disparity between a zealot and a tax collector. Recently, when they had the discussion about taking the Confederate flag down from atop the state house, I saw a video of when, I think it was a group of Klansmen from North Carolina came to protest. So, thanks for visiting our state. A group of KKK members came to protest. I remember watching a video of them. They had, you know, right to march in their little, cute little outfits to march on the state house, and one of my favorite videos was a guy holding a tuba who just showed up also, because he's a free American, and he's walking on the sidewalk next to them while they're marching, and every time they walk, he's going, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, just to completely undercut what they're doing.
I've also seen videos of when there's been different situations going on in cities where the Black Panthers will show up and even seen where they got permission to carry rifles and walk up and down streets, and it is as if Jesus walked over in the middle of the march where the guys playing the tuba walked over to a Klansman and said, hey, you, come follow me. And in the middle of the march where the Black Panthers were protesting came and said, hey, you, follow me. Both of y'all are going to belong to me. Both of y'all are going to be a part of the 12 guys that spend the most time with me, and both of y'all through me are going to overthrow the world with the gospel.
That's the disparity between these two guys. Okay. It keeps going, though. Jesus begins this. Now, you would say, well, yeah, but all of these guys are Jewish men. It keeps going.
Eventually, Jesus dies on the cross and then he tells his followers, this goes to the world. The gospel goes to the world. That I died for sinners goes to the world, not to just Judaism, not to just this area, this type of people. You spread this to the world so that on Pentecost, when Peter stands up, all the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit and Peter stands up and preaches. When he preaches, do you know what language it was in? All the languages.
Every person there not only heard it in their language, but their dialect. So if there were multiple Americans there, I would hear Southern English. And somebody else would be like, Jesus is wicked good. Like, that's what they would have heard. But it was all languages because everybody was welcome.
And then as the book of Acts continues, one of the craziest things happens. People who aren't Jewish start following Jesus and are filled with the Holy Spirit. They actually have to, it's such a big deal to them that Jesus would save non-Jewish people that they have to get together and hold a meeting and talk about it. And basically all they say is, look, the Holy Spirit filled them like he filled us. If Jesus wants them, he can have them. He can do what he wants.
He can welcome anybody he wants to. And the church becomes the, the gospel message begins to spread to everyone who's ever walked on the face of the earth. So that Paul says this in Galatians 3. I'm going to have it, we'll have it on the screen. There is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female for all are one in Christ Jesus.
What he's saying there is that your racial breakup, your racial status, your family history doesn't matter when it comes to repenting of your sin and following Jesus. Your social status, your economic status does not matter. There are no privileged people before Jesus. Your biology does not matter. Jesus doesn't save men over women or women over men. There's not one that's better.
They're created by him and they're both loved by him, saved by him. All are one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. What he's saying there is everyone who belongs to Jesus is now one big family. And he immediately goes on from here in Galatians to talk about we've all been adopted. I don't care what your background was.
I don't care what your philosophy of life was. We all belong to Jesus now. We've all been adopted. That's the church. That's why we as a church family do community groups the way we do. We don't have age group based community groups.
So we don't have college groups or we don't right now have a student group. We don't have any kind of like well this is for single moms or this is for married couples. We don't do that. First of all one of the reasons we're not doing that is if we did that some of you would be by yourself because we're not a really big church. I'm starting a single mom group but have fun. Like you would just but the other reason is that we're a family.
So from zero to 102 we all belong to Jesus. We all gather together. We all worship together. We all belong to him. We've been made into a family. We've all been adopted regardless of your background or your current situation.
You belong to him. One of the pushbacks I've heard people give on this before and while we do groups the way we do people say well yeah okay but you're saying like I've got to be in a group with all these random people. Jesus got to pick who he hung out with and my response to that is yes and that's still the system. Jesus gets to pick. Matthew didn't get to pick. I don't know if he like levied a complaint he was like hey Jesus I saw that Simon the zealot's going to follow you.
Where's your suggestion box? I'm just going to hand this directly to you or me and some of the other guys were talking which is progress because when he first joined nobody was talking to him. Yeah Jesus picks. He picks who's going to be in your family. He picks who's going to be around you and we respond by loving everyone. Loving all the people Jesus gives to us to love.
So here's here's what I want us to do for just a second. I want to help us see something. So we're going to take just a minute to begin to understand what happens like how we have what how Jesus has to work in us for us to overcome some of this. What's got to go on where we need to repent and then what this actually gets to look like in the church. That's kind of what we're going to spend the rest of our time doing. So first thing I want us to do is this.
I want you to realize that every single one of us in this room has a list of what makes you good and what makes you okay and what makes you lovable. You have a list of these are the good people. These are the people that know stuff that are smart that make good decisions. These people and these people aren't. Every single one of us has that. Simon had it.
Matthew had it. The other four middle class disciples had it. All of them. So we're going to have some equal opportunity mocking this morning which is pretty normal for us. If you're new, welcome. Goal really here is to kind of hurt everybody's feelings.
Hopefully we'll accomplish that. If your feelings aren't hurt that just means we didn't mention you and I hope you get your feelings hurt for being left out. Okay. Our goal here really is to just point out here's how we're doing this all the time. Here are the lists we have. All the time going on in our hearts of what's good what's not good.
So we're going to start off with as any good you know center line moderator would we're going to go after conservatives first. Alright. So this is the conservative list of who's good who's bad who's in who's out who God loves who God doesn't. At the top of the list we got NRA members also known as home defenders slash American heroes. A little bit underneath them we have Fox News the only bastion of truth and genuineness on television even though no one wants to hear it they're in it not for the money but for truth and justice. Alright.
Bastion of truth and genuineness on television even though no one wants to hear it they're in it not for the money but for truth and justice. Alright. Fox News a little bit under them we have Ted Cruz just under Ted Cruz whoever Ted Cruz endorses. He comes in just a little bit under Ted Cruz underneath that we have and this is a good bit down the line here
We have people who compare having a dog to having a child so if you're conservative that's not a good thing like you can't just act like a child and a dog are the same thing underneath that a good bit down we have murderers I mean we're working through the whole list here guys I'm just hitting some highlights underneath murderers we have the liberal media and the lies they feed to the American populace and underneath the liberal media at the very bottom we have anyone who plans to vote for Hillary
And if you're a conservative I mean you almost wanted to shout amen but you realized we were kind of making jokes at you so you had to you had to hold it in but it's not just conservatives we have we made a liberal list as well for people this is what makes life good this is what makes you smart at the very top the best thing in the world Barack Obama I don't know if it's slow jamming the news whether he's reading mean tweets or I don't know getting rid of Osama bin Laden and ruling the free world
Osama bin Laden top of the list doesn't get better than that a little bit underneath that we have safe spaces where you can go maybe color maybe listen to some music that's unoffensive have no one say anything that you disagree with and be free underneath that we have free college college and universal health care the twin sisters of a modern society of what is all that is good and holy and righteous in our beautiful future underneath that
We have environmentalists actually out there saving the world every day did y'all know that? literally saving the world amazing amazing people underneath them we have people who don't believe in global warming you live in Columbia South Carolina you don't believe in global warming I mean in five points people just catch on fire periodically okay if they weren't sweating so much it just helps it counteracts it
Puts it out alright underneath that we have gun owners also known as psychos and underneath them Donald Trump a walking nightmare that has come from the upside down to rule and reign over the free people causing harm and havoc wherever he goes but it's not just maybe it's not just politics it's not just your particular political affinity we have lists for everything so we made a tough guy list so if you're macho you got hunts and lift weights up there
Now it can go either way you can be a guy who just really hunts like you're just that's your thing it can be lift weights if you do both that's amazing if you can do both at the same time you're at the top if you can get some curls in while you're in the stand if you can bench press whatever you kill like that's that's great underneath that we have never shows emotions other than anger or hunger I think that one can make it on the list
Underneath people who don't show emotions is you cried once at Braveheart we might we might let gladiator slide as well underneath that we have anyone who lets their wife drive while they're in the car and we're being a bit fast and loose with the word drive underneath that we have anyone who watched the notebook underneath that anyone who watched the notebook and wasn't forced to underneath them
Come people who can read now if it's a box of ammunition or like some whey protein and you gotta figure out how many scoops that's okay but otherwise not an okay thing underneath them people who do read and at the very bottom of the list people who read the notebook we've got one more this is we're gonna start bottom down on this one and this is just Christian culture the moral majority the background
Backbone of America American life we've got at the very bottom of this list scientists and the lies they're trying to feed our children above them we have fornicators above them we have people who swear potty mouths above them we have people who don't listen to family friendly radio they most likely swear people above them people who share
Repost share if you love Jesus post on Facebook out there fighting the good fight you guys every time that comes along they think I love Jesus repost it's not that hard it's just a click guys that's fine I just don't want to be there on judgment when all those pop on your feed and Jesus watch you
Keep on scrolling I'm just saying alright people above that people who watch God's not dead they're a little bit above them on the list but above them we have people who enjoyed God's not dead and then at the very top and he's been here a while Tim Tebow okay so those are all the lists we made we did have fun would like to share
A bunch more with you but those are the ones we've got here's the thing we're joking but not really see we're doing that all the time you've been trained to do this since you were a child you did this when you went to elementary school and then middle school who am I going to hang out with who's okay who's not okay who are my people who aren't my people how do I know I'm okay how do I know
I have value how do I know what's good and what's bad you see I need to be in the categories of what's good and then if this is good this has to be bad if this is what makes me okay the opposite has to be terrible that has to be what God doesn't like that has to be what makes you a bad person I mean and we we naturally drift towards the people
Who we agree with so that 95% of the people we hang out with that we spend our time with that we talk to agree with us when it comes to politics have similar social economic standing to us have similar similar similar family family backgrounds have similar educational levels skin looks the same culture
Looks the same attitude about life is the same we naturally drift towards these are my people and because we do all these things we're good we're okay we're lovable and we do it all the time you can see someone at Walmart and know whether or not I could be
Friends with them based off of what they're wearing based off of how they're acting you have an attractive one you have a dress one you have like we've got all of these it's something everybody in the room has something that you're using to say this is what makes me okay this is what makes me lovable this is why these are the good people
And what we can see from how Jesus picked the disciples and then what happens on Pentecost and then what happens with the early church is that Jesus immediately shows up and says no throw your list away it doesn't count it does not matter there are not good people and bad people there are bad
People and me that's what Jesus says there are sinners who need a savior and there's me a savior that's why his first message was repent and believe the gospel Jesus shows up and says anyone is welcome if they'll turn from their sin
There are no other qualifications so I want to tell you three things that happen if we as a church actually embrace what we're called to as followers of Jesus number one it'll be awkward it'll be awkward there'll be moments where you get to a conversation and you go
Oh we are so completely on different pages here like this is just weird I don't even know how to keep talking to you I really want to just argue with you I feel like you are so wrong about this like there are going to be moments that it's
Just awkward like that awkward may be the best that may be like the high water Mark it goes downhill from there there are times with my group I was just got to thinking about this and taking some notes and this is this has
Been the awkward is a very good description of my community group since I've been able to be a part of this church all the community groups I've gotten to be a part of like at best a lot of times we were just awkward like it was just a group
Of people that should not be in the same room together outside of Jesus like it would not naturally hang out with each other if we walked into a lunchroom this table wouldn't exist like people naturally divide themselves it wouldn't have been the group that was hanging out at
My house that wouldn't have been a lunchroom table like I've had conversations it's so fun for me the guys in our group get together and eat at Eggroll Station every Thursday Eggroll Station is right down the road it's a cash only place I keep seven dollars in my wallet at all times for Eggroll Station
If I got robbed he's like give me everything in your wallet and I opened up and saw I just had seven dollars I'd be like no I can't this is earmarked for Eggrolls I guess you just have to shoot me like but it's so fun because when we get around that table those guys there's conversational shift to one subject and you can see two or
Three people just being like I don't even know the words that are being used anymore and then it's fun because I get to do follow-up conversations with people so I've had a conversation with a guy in my community group where he asked me where we had a discussion about what interest was interest like on your credit card he didn't know what interest was
What's GDP what's return on investment I've had these conversations I've had conversations with like what's a Twitter what's call of duty I have had conversations where like in my group because it's such a random group of people somebody will say something about like they need to get a new band saw and someone else like what what kind of music do they play like I've had
Conversations with people about the frame rates on televisions that are best for gaming if you are playing Street Fighter had that conversation had a conversation about what what the difference between 90 grain and 100 grain bullets in a small handgun especially if it's a concealed carry for a lady had that conversation had conversations about woodworking had conversations about why Kendrick Lamar is the
Greatest rapper that's ever walked on the face of the earth and had to listen to four or five songs to learn that didn't like I I got invited to a party one time I showed up at the party and it was one of those situations where I walked in immediately was like oh these aren't these are I would not sit at this lunchroom table like these aren't my people I'm mad at them just like and I just kind of walked around from conversation to
Conversation waiting for like a word that I understood and I heard the word Star Wars and I was like all right I've seen that I'm a fan of Ewoks although I know people make fun of that and so then I got in this conversation and what they were discussing was how in the first trilogy lightsaber battles were much different from the second trilogy and the second trilogy made more sense because if the sword is made out of light you wouldn't have to wield it very
Harshly you could just kind of swing it like this and when it hit things it would just cut through it because it's not an actual sword but in the first movie they use them like they're really heavy swords and that didn't make any sense and then when it kind of came to me there was like a pause I said I liked it when Yoda used his lightsaber that's all I had and they were like good and then they just kept talking eventually I was just like I get best sometimes this is just awkward on the Venn diagram of what brings you together the only thing
Everyone's going to have in common is Jesus at the middle and that's exactly how that's supposed to be because Jesus calls everybody Jesus welcomes everybody and it doesn't have anything to do with likes dislikes background anything other than you're a sinner in need of a savior it's gonna be awkward secondly you're going to get your feelings hurt you're gonna get hurt you hang out with a church you were going to get hurt they're gonna get in arguments Simon the zealot and Matthew didn't just magically click there was some frustration there was some discussion there was how on earth do you
Believe that how is that okay you're gonna get your feelings hurt you're gonna get in some someone's gonna say something they're gonna make a joke because from where they come in life that's a perfectly okay thing to make a joke about but they just made a joke about your sister they're gonna make a joke and it absolutely isn't funny to you you're gonna get hurt and you're gonna have the option of walking away or pressing in of going to him and saying hey that's not that's not a funny joke for someone who follows Jesus and here's why that's why that's not okay and here's why I'm hurt right
Now because I like I thought we were cool but that's like you you just you just completely acted like I don't even exist or matter the the people that you in your life have said I can't stand I can't believe that somebody would oh my goodness I don't know if I'd ever be able to get along with somebody who was so rich they had a trust fund and they never had to work a day in their life I can't stand people who just are a drain on society and they just sit around their house waiting for their welfare check to show up I can't believe these black lives matter people I can't stand cops who on earth are you to say all lives matter
What does that even what are you even trying to say right now all the people that you've sat and said I couldn't be around somebody who acted like this voted like this had this attitude about this every single one of them is invited by Jesus to be his every single one of those comments you've made Jesus is actively after that person to make them his and if we actually look like his church you're gonna get your feelings hurt there's gonna be some arguments there's gonna be some frustration because what Jesus does is he steps into a giant group of sinners and says all of you are messed up all of you are selfish all of you think you're better than everybody else and
You're all welcome because none of that's true you're not better than anybody else you are messed up you are selfish you need a savior the third thing first is it's gonna be awkward secondly you're gonna get your feelings hurt thirdly this is beautiful because the only way this works is that Jesus Christ died on a cross to save sinners and to forgive us of our sin the only way this works is that none of us lived up to what we were called to and all of us needed a savior and Jesus saves sinners and because all of the conflicts we're gonna have and all the frustration we're gonna have and all the hurt feelings we're gonna have are going to deal with either I sinned against you or you sinned against me or one of us started it but we both went actively after it to harm each other all of
That is sin and Jesus already paid for sin everything that needs to happen for us to stay an eternal church family has already happened because Jesus paid for sin so we can forgive each other we can keep loving when it's hard we can keep having conversations when we don't want to we can weigh in when things are difficult we can walk up to someone and say hey I know you well enough to know you're actively trying to follow Jesus but what you just said hurt me so bad you have no clue and have that conversation trusting that Jesus is gonna be at work and that ultimately he forgives sinners and that when you even if you roll up into that conversation with a bad attitude and accuse them of things he they can forgive you and you can forgive them and Jesus can be at work in this and it's the only organization organism group family on the the planet that
Includes everybody that welcomes everybody it's Christianity doesn't show up Jesus didn't show up to Matthew and say hey you can follow me if you'll be this type of person he didn't show up to Simon he didn't show up to to Andrew and John and say hey you can follow me if here are the rules first here's what you've got to do first what he shows up and says is follow me the only thing that excludes anybody from the church is believing that they don't need Jesus is is holding on for dear life to their list and saying no this is what makes me okay and I have to have this everybody who lets go of that and walks into the empty hands that Jesus gets welcomed because there is no list that you can hold up in front of God and be saved by it's Jesus that saves us I don't care what other it could be a homeowners organization homeowners association in Malibu California or a gang in Detroit they all
Have this is what makes you okay and this is what excludes you and the church doesn't the church has Jesus makes us okay and holding on to anything else is what excludes you but everybody else who shows up and says I have nothing other than Jesus is welcome everybody's welcome because there are no disqualifying factors he saves sinners now Jesus went to work on Matthew because Matthew needed to change and Jesus went to work on Simon because Simon needed to change and if you if you say not I'm a Democrat like I am there's gonna be things because of Jesus that you can't be okay with that need to change if you said no I'm a Republican there could be things that need to change because you follow Jesus that's the way it works everybody's brought to Jesus so we all show up with all of our sin and Jesus goes to work on us to make us more like him okay and then because of the gospel
We get to we get to love each other we get to be friends y'all our culture says that you and I can't disagree and still still be friends Jesus says we can't do you know that you can disagree with somebody and still be their friend did you know that you can disagree with somebody and still be their friend like an actual friend like a still talk to them friend not like okay we're cool but we're not gonna talk anymore because we disagree you know this do you know how freeing that is do you know that as a Christian you should have friends that you disagree with on some very real issues to the temptation for us all is to say yeah we can disagree but not on all these things that are actually really important and then we just bring our list back in we actually get to disagree and still love each other and still connect with each other and still be friends one of the ways the early church practiced what Jesus has called
Them into here you ever read in the New Testament where Paul says greet each other with a holy kiss I just recently learned what that meant I always thought it was weird now it's amazing because I just thought kissing each other was weird and I didn't know what a holy kiss was be honest with you I'm not like a hugger like I and I'm working on this I've had people come at me before like this and I've been like nah I got live for real not just like I said no like stuck my hand I was like no I'll shake your hand I did that to one person I saw them like visibly like hurt inside like I so every time I read holy kiss I was just like this sounds terrible that's weird let's not institute that one but here's what it was here's why they did it in their culture when they greeted each other they kissed that was the cultural greeting the same way we would shake hands they they kissed it was just a normal cultural thing if you
Were on the same social level as the other person you kiss cheeks if they were below you they kissed your hand and the caste system the social structure system it was it was well known who was where if they were well below you they kissed your feet or vice versa if they were above you you kiss their hand if they were well above you kiss their feet that was what they did all day long so all day long they were rehearsing who's important who's at the top who makes it here who's better who's in the middle who am I equal to they were rehearsing that all day long that was what their culture did and Paul says no no no no when the church gets together everybody gets kissed on the face that's a holy kiss because that system doesn't apply to us everybody's welcome everybody's loved there is no hierarchy we all belong to Jesus and we're all sinners so when the church got together it was greet each other with a holy kiss everybody
Celebrate that we're all the same because Jesus is great so I love that imagery so we're gonna stand up right now and kiss it no I'm just kidding um here's what we're gonna do we're gonna repent because that's the appropriate response to the good news of the gospel we can be saved by Jesus based off of not our merit but his his love not our work we're gonna repent and here's how we're gonna do this I'm gonna read through a list we're gonna just talk through a little bit there are some people large groups of people that you treat poorly even if it's only mentally that you think about differently than other people that you look down on that in your head you're rehearsing the ladder in your head you're rehearsing the list of this is where I am this is where you are and you're gonna need to repent you're gonna need to ask Jesus to forgive you and to help you and to change you right now you're gonna need to ask Jesus
To help you see this there are individuals that you've done that to in our church family in your community group that you just kind of avoid because it's awkward you just kind of avoid because maybe they said something one time that you didn't like and so instead of addressing it with them or talking to them about it you just kind of write them off they're a jerk I don't like them they have an attitude they constantly cause this issue they they they on a regular basis say this which is hurtful and instead of loving them and talking to them you've just kind of said that's it I don't have to deal with you anymore I'll be in our I'll be in your group I'm not gonna cause you any problems but I don't have to talk to you you're gonna need to repent some of you maybe actually got in an argument you both remember and you're gonna need to go talk to each other and forgive each other and
Talk about it and repent there are gonna be some people that you don't need to talk to there are people who are awkward they exist that's as like that I mean I don't have a scale but that is like an objective thing there are people who just make conversations weird or who just and maybe you've been treating them differently there's some people who are just kind of rude and they need that addressed in them but one of the ways you're gonna repent is starting to love them again not walking over to them and saying hey when you've been really rude I've been offended by that and so I quit hanging out with you but I'm gonna start hanging out with you again because I'm really great that's not repentance that's not what that's gonna look like hey you always make me uncomfortable because of the sermon I'm gonna be your friend again don't do that just start being their friend again just start
Loving them start answering their phone calls start hanging out with them go sit next with them go start a conversation you don't need to tell them some people you're gonna need to tell them you hurt me we need to talk I've been treating you differently I've written you off I've stopped talking to you I've been cordial but I hadn't been loving okay so here's a list just to help us think who would it be weird for you to be seen with giving the normal social circles you run in who would it be weird for who would your friends say hey why were you hanging out with them what was that about that may help you realize okay I'm treating some people differently even if I'm not doing it intentionally I don't naturally just talk to them I
Don't naturally just act like we're on the same level is there anybody that you are really just thankful that you aren't so thankful I'm not like them thank you Jesus that I was born here thank you Jesus that I'm like that person anybody you're afraid of you feel uncomfortable when you talk to them because you believe they're elevated above you anybody you just don't like I just don't like them I get on my nerves I'm not saying you can't have friends and that having people you enjoy being around more is sinful not saying that don't hear that you can have friends you can have people you enjoy being around more you should that's normal I'm saying you can't say oh I don't like them so I don't have to hang
Out with them that's not true anybody you ignore or avoid sometimes it's not intentional it's just you don't think you'd have anything in common you think they don't want to talk to you they're really smart that'd be weird I don't know they're kind of in a whole different life stage I wouldn't have anything to talk to them about they probably don't want to talk to me I make things awkward so that person doesn't want to talk to me like you've already picked them out so you're just avoiding them and acting like Jesus hasn't called us all to be family and who are you critical towards who is it that you say I can't believe they I would never who is it you talk about when they're not there can you believe they did that rather than talking to them
Is there anybody you're holding a resentment towards you're bitter towards again some of these are going to be large groups of people maybe you're really uncomfortable with a different race and thankfully Jesus is at work in our church and we we are somewhat racially diverse we are trying to be more racially diverse which means we have to lay down some of our preferences I'm white most of our leadership is white and like real white like whitey white like type of music type of dress type of thought process which means we have to lay down some of our preferences we have to say this I know I like this better but that doesn't mean it's correct we're working on that we're continuing to try to work on that and and if you realize you know I just kind of treat this race differently or this
Large group of people differently don't pick someone in our church family who fits that description and go have them represent that entire group do you in a conversation you can start trying to befriend them you can start trying to talk to them but don't go over to them say hey I just want to let you know I've been unless you've been racist towards them then yeah fix that talk to them repent some people you're gonna need to talk to a specific person you've been avoiding you've been critical towards man's gonna come back up and we're gonna sing and thank Jesus that he makes us into a family that because of the cross our sin has been paid for that we're free and that we actually get to love one another and relate to one another forever that heaven all of those lists to die and it's just a Jesus lifted up and glorified forever and us as a beautiful family that gets
Together around the one table that makes perfect sense let's pray God I pray that through your Holy Spirit you would help us repent you'd help us see where we're treating people in our church family differently where we're acting as if we're above them or they're above us we're acting as if we haven't been made into a family we have nothing to talk about there's I don't have to be their friend they get on my nerves God I just pray that your Holy Spirit would be at work that you'd help us to celebrate the forgiveness that we have in you the joy and the hope that we have in you you'd help us to repent of where we're wrong pray Lord where we treat people differently based off of wealth race
Voting habits God where we have our list I pray that you'd help them to die and us to love you more and to love people more because you call all sinners to repent and be saved by your free grace and your death on the cross in Jesus name Amen
October 2nd, 2016