Transition/transition3l

Massachusetts a while back and I absolutely loved what she said She's we're in the middle of having this kind of session and she she took about said Wayne if I'm hearing you right She says she picks up her Bible She said I could read this every morning and instead of at the end of it feeling like oh what a crud I am and how far Short I fall so I actually read this in the morning when I see that I don't measure up to it I could say wow look what God's doing in me I said yeah, we're gonna be a great way to read it. Look what God's doing in this. No, it's not done yet I'm not there yet. I don't love the honesty of people on this journey because who we trying to impress I mean, you know religion is all about putting on good externals, but who we trying to impress? We're all brothers and sisters who are muddling along on this journey. No one's got all figured out including me and So we're just we're just learning and growing and we're showing what we're learning and what makes sense to you Grab on it and live it and what doesn't make sense to you. Let it go. You don't have to bash the person or convince them They're wrong or anything else like that So I think it does turn into that, but yeah, I think it's a great way to look at the commandments We've got the you shall not if that's a promise man. That's a deal. That's a wonderful deal Anybody else? Yeah Well to whatever degree to do, I don't really say gosh, let's go through rebellion and religion and then let's get there I wouldn't say that way But is that often true? Yeah, and like I said to you when we started religion. I think is endemic to our flesh It's not just what we got from institutions. There's something in us that craves dealing with our shame through a Religious exercise and we're talking about shame this afternoon a little bit. I think unless you guys want to go a different direction I'm really letting you guys be in the left-hand seat from now on so there's some things I'd love to get to but if we don't get there. I'm not worried about it. I'm more concerned that we're Processing what we said this morning and learning to live this way I had a man I got on a flight with a makeshift someone's with the coffee shop when we were together a few months ago but I got in a plane a couple years ago right when the passion movie was a big deal it was out and I sat down on a plane next to an atheist. I know it was an atheist because he told me he was and he had the Newsweek magazine in his lap with Mel Gibson or the actor playing Jesus on the cover or something and and So I noticed it when I said and I was also moved up to first class that day because the back was full And they wanted my seat and so I'm a frequent flyer. They gave me first class So I don't yeah, I don't usually turn it down when they offer it. It's just fine with me and But I figured God's got something in mind actually so I kind of was already thinking I wonder who I'm sitting next to and it was this guy and he had this magazine So I I mentioned I said and it was their line copy. So I said that man I'd like to read that and when you get done with it He said you should this movie and I said I saw it yesterday So do you like it? And I said well, there's parts of it I really like those parts of it and not so much and I said but overall yeah I'm kind of sure what Newsweek says about he says I hate this movie I said you do he said I'm an atheist. I said you are and he said yep And then I hate you Christians and I hate all the things you're doing to ruin the world and religion and blah-blah-blah, and he went on and on And I thought well, let me let me get him off this topic for a little bit So I asked him what he did for a living and where he was going and he's a electronics President vice president electronics firm headed Orlando, and we were on our way to Chicago and So finally asked what do you do for a living? And I said well, that's really hard to describe. I said I've kind of taken to people I Kind of wander around the planet helping people sort out what Jesus really taught And the reason I answer it that way is because of what he says next everybody. I've ever said that to Says exactly what he said. We think it was No Actually, it's better than that. I wouldn't I wouldn't do it if that's the response I got he goes Do you know what? I think Jesus really taught now. Here's a self-professed atheist Who's gonna tell me what Jesus really taught? I've never had anybody say oh really well, what do you think Jesus really taught never have said to me But they always say well, you know, I think just because everybody in the world has an idea of what Jesus really taught I said no, we think just really taught and he said I think Jesus taught us That we have a father who loves us more than we know and if we could sort that out We would know how to treat each other and I was I Kind of mouth a gate look at him and I said and you're an atheist. Why he said what do you mean? I said, I've been all over the world. I'll be honest. I've never heard it put better. I think that's exactly what the gospel is Really, I said Jesus exactly said that love one another as I have loved you until we get that love relationship Now we don't know how to treat each other and I said the reason why You know, that's not around a lot is because people don't know the truth of what you just said I said, why don't you believe it and he said because I've never seen That's sad. I said I have you have I say yeah, let me tell you about some brothers and sisters I know outside Dublin, Ireland, so I told them a wonderful story about them. He goes who tell me another I said, okay I know some folk down Johannesburg and told them their story Don't start with some folks in Sacramento folks I know and by sell yeah and other places in the world and he kept going who tell me another one and I told about a woman in Kansas who lives an incredible life. She found out This is why I think a law never takes you where love does she found out on one afternoon That her husband was gay that he was divorcing her that he was moving in with his lover That he had AIDS and had exposed her to it Now that's like that for an afternoon conversation he devastated her life and He ended up divorcing her. She moved out his lover moved in Eight years later She hears this little inkling in her heart. I want you to go back and take care of your ex-husband. Well, he's dying So you're there my goodness That's when you wrestle with for a while. That's not you just you know, write that down your little prayer journal and say, ooh I heard from God today She's going man, I hope that's not bad and struggled with it Fine after three months concluded it was went knocked on the door of her old house The male lover of her husband now answers the door She says hi, how you doing? He said we're not doing well here. We're both dying of AIDS She said well, can I talk to my ex-husband for a minute and so he came in and he's bedridden now I can't even move and the other one's pretty sick. We're trying to care for him and She said I just feel like I'm supposed to move back in here and help take care of you guys Do you would you be open to that not as your wife? Just as a sister and He said yeah, that would be okay We don't know what else to do. So she moved back into her old house She cared for her ex-husband as he died He came to faith and repentance in the midst of that his lover came to faith and repentance He died she stays on to take care of his lover Because she felt like God asked him to As he's dying as a knock on the door another gay man is staying there with AIDS saying I Understand you take care of AIDS patients here She says no not really But she said come on in 11 years and 60 AIDS patients later Yeah All of which came to faith none of which was ever required. Here's a woman that just loved people in the homeless How does law ever get you there? See the stories I know of people who live this life of love in relationship I mean they are involved in things no one would ever choose to be involved in and they're not in it miserable Now she's been she's had a hospital given to her outside, Kansas And they're converting it into a hospice for AIDS patients there saying the retro drugs Actually, we're using now are going to become less effective over time and there's still Epidemic coming and she also goes to Africa and does training over there She invited me to go this past summer when this lady calls me To say Wayne would you come to South Africa and help train some people who work with AIDS patients? I don't even she never pays my way. She doesn't have the money to pay it But do I go you bet I go and now she called me she called me yesterday We got to go to China And not go ahead stop dragging me all over the world. I like staying home with Sarah But we may be going to China now doing some stuff there. She's got back from a trip there and See love we have a father who loves us more than we know and if we could get our hands around that My religion is so powerful in our world it presents us with an image of God that is well beneath him Then makes us jump through hoops trying to earn that relationship and it keeps us from the living God and keeps it from that kind of transformed life so I Guess you're important that we get this bit How do we enter into this relationship? How do we live? Relationally think relationally because everything changes in that context. We could talk about love here How do people in rebellion love each other and I mean just the world's definition of love not time That's why God's definition of love. What what does love called among people living in sin? How do you love each other? Hey, buddy, do you mean some ideas? I'm not looking for a specific answer Spend money indulgence Enabling you know, you're not a conscience for people. You just you know love no matter what they're doing You I mean the whole idea of love here is just live and let live who cares get on with that You know and yeah, what does love look like here people caught up in religion? What does love look like? Huh Controlling very controlling sacrifice conforming Pardon correcting Let's even get more vicious than that isn't love in a religious context incredibly manipulative And you do horrible things to people people some stuff You would never do to somebody that you genuinely had affection for But you do it and you do it with a sense of this is for your own good This is This is what we have to do We have to throw you out of here say bad things about you and shun you because you didn't conform to Whatever it was that we needed you to conform to very conforming based very manipulative and It just I mean you have to keep telling each other its love because it doesn't look like love and it doesn't feel like love See I keep saying this is love Wouldn't do this to you otherwise, but we love you enough my My wife's are done a jury about a year and a half ago now as a murder case back in the Ventura County where we live and She said the most obnoxious person on the jury the entire time. She had an answer for everything She what all the jury I do what she wanted She was right and she would anybody disagree with their one Mexican later Mexican lady objected to something she turned to her and said, what are you use a drug use an addict anyway or something I mean she just said was caustic and obnoxious no one in the room liked her and Sarah says I was ready to rip her hair out I mean that takes a lot for Sarah Sarah's not a fighter like me. She just not and They were like weeks on this trial and then of I hate days and deliberation and it's there It's that everybody in the room was ready to kill her and when she got done they finally got to a verdict Which I know they didn't get to a verdict actually hung But they finally decided they were hung and not gonna get to answer this lady when they were all done They were back waiting for the judge and everybody get in the courtroom to make their final appearance This lady opens up her purse and pulls out flyers for their church's Christmas program and was passing ever mountain everybody come and Sarah said I couldn't believe it. I could not believe it. She thought people in the room really liked her There's nobody everybody just looked at each other their eyes just rolling shaking her head and she had no idea And she's telling me this is where I'm going I can think of the number of instances. I've been in where people probably doing that to me Just kind of rolling my eyes going look guys. I'm moron. What is he thinking? Thank you So I say I but Sarah and I have had to join now the last 12 years or so for us And I said it's not we're not perfectly getting the relationship thing down as I said there are bits of us that are set rebellion in it There's bits of us that are still find ourselves thinking more religiously than we want But more and more we're learning to live relationally in the life of Jesus every day and I hope you all time Tell me the relation I say what does that mean as I go to small group or house church or whatever You know what you know what relational is it define it That you know God for who he is You're growing in a relationship with a God as he really is is one and two You take every relationship that crosses your path on a given day. Seriously. Does God have something in it? It's not just a relationship with a small group. It's it's the relationship It's the person I'm saying next to in the plane coming out here. Does God have something in this or not? He doesn't always I I don't harass every person I sit next to But I almost always say hi to him and almost kind of ask him where they're going You know the people that are saying would you shut up? I've got work to do You know, I don't say it verbally, but their face as it I leave him alone. I'm not there to torture anybody I do anti-arrestment stuff with public schools and to me the whole harassment game Which now they're saying you know you came to show the gospel in schools anymore because now it's religious harassment No, it's not Children have peace free speech rights on a public school campus. You can share the gospel But you know if you've shared the gospel with a Jewish student and he's asked you please I don't believe that I have my own Faith leave me alone. You know what leave them alone. It's it's really basic human respect But for religious people you have to define it sometime because I have the right to bash you with the truth Damn it. That's how we think about Sorry, I was a little rude Sarah's like hearing that stuff but That's that's how that's how it feels, you know So we got to get to you and dug on it and even if it's rude. Well, it's for your own good Which is how we ended up killing hundreds of people back in 400 or 1400 1500s the whole Inquisition thing Islam is just where we were 500 years ago. We can tell those people are they killing people. That was our faith 500 years ago 400 years ago When you take the right to push your worldview on someone else Carrying the weight of it to a number one. I have the truth number two I have the backing of God So number three I can be as disgusting view as I want to be because it's only for your own good I'm just we're headed down the wrong road To live relationally means I live in God. I wake up to God every morning Now some of you don't wake up till about noon. Even if you're up by 7 I realize that I'm a morning guy moment I my eyes open. I'm wide awake and I am God What are we doing today now? God doesn't give me a list. I don't have any idea what we're gonna do today But I'm in I'm in and then I just take seriously. I noticed people around me I could be waiting in line at the post office. I can be in a store supermarket quite honestly isn't very often. I just Sarah's so good about that. I just She takes me a couple of times. I buy things. I didn't know they still made the grocery bills twice as high I don't get invited back. It's perfect and when Sarah forgets that I retrain her With another visit to the grocery store and she said I sent you for milk and eggs and then four bags coming in honey I didn't know they made this stuff anymore. This is great stuff, so Every now and again we have to retrain her but she's getting it We have finally found a life worth living Every person that crosses our path. I mean I'm walking through Chicago who are O'Hare Airport and I'm smiling I'm looking for people catch eye contact with I don't smile say good morning to them. I don't say good morning in Jesus name Because what is that ruins the whole good morning? You don't want that I? Honestly believe that Jesus in my life Communicates with people even through a smile or a wing or a greeting I do and whatever Jesus is doing in them is encouraged, but so living relationally It's not you go to a small group. It's not if you live relationally. It may involve a small group But that's not the only people you target. It's it's knowing your neighbors It's finding a way to know your neighbors mine was just arrested the other day, and I'm thinking God that's probably more there I could have known about that guy, but the police broke down his door the night before I flew out here and I've been checking the website for the paper at home to see if there's any and hauled out his computer They I don't know what's going on. I've been sure we've only lived there eight months So I don't I'm not bashing myself for knowing him very well yet He is the neighbor I knew the best in the neighborhood because he's retired and home a lot and I just But you have no idea what that's about Hope it's not a meth lab. That's what I'm kind of concerned about We'll see That you don't live Where you live by coincidence you don't work where you work by coincidence Which doesn't mean you have this new burden. I've got to know every if it's a burden to you It's not relational. It's not it yet. So don't worry about it when you're loved those who are loved well Will love well if you're well loved you'll love well So if I don't know how to do that yet if there's people in my life I can't stand that person that then see there's something I know There's something that I don't know about God's love that if I knew it I could love them, too So everything now is wrapped up in the love thing for me. How do we work that out? So if I If I'm angry if I'm impatient if I'm anxious I Always sit back say it's something about you God. I don't know if I knew it I wouldn't be responding this way here. I'm responding because I'm responding outside of that love relationship you and I have I'm responding out of Wayne's needs and issues or something else and what hope do I have if he doesn't change me and The miracle that Sarah and I are witnessing is that God has changed more in our lives in the last 12 years Then the sum total of the 40 years previous And when God changes something it's it's a wonderful way that it changes because when God changes something you notice it when it's happening I didn't know it's God was doing it. I'm in situations now. It used to make me Incredibly angry. I'm going and I'm sitting in this middle situation. Why am I not mad? This is what I'm usually like grabbing people by the throat and choking them and I'm not even upset See I know what it was to think that spiritual victory for a long time was being angry and not expressing it It's repression See, I'm really angry, but I can smile at you and I could be nice to you and then when I go home tells Sarah What a jerky you are see that's what I thought was healing Healing is being in those exact same situations and places where you would have been anxious or angry or You know trying to manipulate your way in it and you're saying they're going I don't even want to Last time I came to Pennsylvania on that last time you're here before when I came out for that camp that you guys are at At this castle thing over the side of Pennsylvania. I Was at that thing conference because a man who had met me a year earlier at an airport Invited me to come out and I I was standing at 2 30 in the morning getting my bags off the carousel with Sarah in Pittsburgh at 2 30 in the morning because a flight that was supposed to land at 4 30 in the afternoon Got delayed in Chicago. Well, all kinds of reasons a big storm switched runways President Bush landed there in the middle of the campaign that always blows the airport And so instead of getting in at 4 30 in the afternoon. We got it 2 30 in the morning It took us longer to go from LA to Pittsburgh than to go from LA to New Zealand a month earlier. That's that's not right Spent four hours circling Iowa, and I'm telling if we're gonna spend four hours circling Iowa is not one of the things you want to be doing with that four hours and Finally, it's you know 8 39 30 at night We're all tired everybody's been hanging out in the terminal and they're everybody's angry and screaming This is I you know ticket agents are just wonderful people to be angry at and I've normally done that There was a guy in front of me at one point. They said mr. Mrs. Jacobson, did you please come to the counter because we had seats had to be switched because Planes were being switched it so I went up to the counter. We're standing there waiting this guy in front This has been absolutely obnoxious to this poor lady. He's all upset. He's late for his time It's all the airlines fall and she's just trying to be as gracious to him as can be and I'm look at this guy going This is how I used to act This is me and I count over at Sarah and Sarah was looking up at me She had this goofy little grin on her face, and I said don't you dare say it? She said say what she said that guy reminds you of me. She said it does that's exactly what I was thinking a little rat and I'm saying there. I'm realizing I'm not even upset about the yeah I don't like getting it to 30 in the morning who does but oh god, it's not my it's not my control So why am I gonna waste time and I'm just Well, there was a guy there who had read the naked church ten years before he'd been a pastor at the time He wasn't now. He'd read the naked church He'd been praying that God would give him a chance to meet me. I've been praying that for ten years He hears Wayne Jacobson call he's flying in from Germany with a group of students that have been on tour of Germany They're waiting to get into Pittsburgh They're delayed as much as we are so I heard Wayne Jagger calling out Wayne Jacobson He looked up and he sees Sarah and I go the counter And he said that could be the guy not for sure remember what was on the book and the books older the picture is pretty much I wonder if that's the guy and he kind of thought eventually it was and as I'm waiting to get in line and so he He finally just he said I'm gonna watch him to see if he is what he writes about Because everybody was frustrated and short tempered and I didn't know I was being watched I get my bags in Pittsburgh. He walks up to me this guy introduced himself. You Wayne Jacobson I say yeah, and I don't get recognized in airports. I mean people don't know me them. What? He said yeah, your book changed my life because I've been praying for years to meet you and I so how do you I'm just I'm dumbfounded He knows who I am and We talked for a little bit and then he called me a month later asked me to speak at this camp And he's introducing me at this camp last year and he said listen. I was watching Wayne I went up to a ticket counter. I was watching him to say let's see if this man really is who he says he is And he said you can't believe in all that anger Wayne was just a picture of patience and kindness lots of what I got up after Why you should have seen me three years before I see you remember that guy in front of me Oh, yeah, I remember that guy for you. That was me three years ago. That was long after I wrote the naked church So no this this transition that God does in our lives is just amazing to me It's what Paul writes about in Galatians 6 when he says forbid it that I should boast in anything Except the cross of Christ through whom I died to the world and the world died to me I Used to teach Galatians and groups. I gotta tell you I get to Galatians 6 14 and I would just say okay This makes no sense Because I've been through the cross at least I thought I had been through the cross And I couldn't honestly say that I was dead to the world and the world was dead to me There was a lot in the world. I wanted and being a good Pharisee. I could resist it I could not have it but to describe it as me dead to the world and the world dead to me I just didn't seem fair. So I'd always teach this as obviously Paul's talking about an abstract spiritual truth here It's nothing practically real. Yes, we're tempted by the world. Yes, but there's no Paul's talking about And Paul's nuts about this boasting thing. He's always talking about this by grace You are saved through faith. This is not of yourselves the gift of God lest anyone should boast Paul knew this kind of righteousness the reason I love Paul being one of our wonderful Apostles that wrote so much of the New Testament He was a religionist Before he was a follower of Christ He could smell religion 1500 miles away. He's Well, it's just seems like they're in a bit of trouble over there catch the He could sort it out Paul saying I know the righteousness that comes from works. I know it I climbed that ladder It was on the wrong wall. I got to the top of that ladder. And where was he? Paul is to zeal a persecutor the church as to the law found faultless. What else did he say about himself? He was the chiefest of That's interesting See I is a good religion history that go away at Paul's being awful humble there. That's pretty sweet He's I'm the chiefest of sinners. God saved me. That's first Timothy language But I think come on. He was a righteous guy working hard. Yay the wrong theology need to switch from Judaism to Christianity But basically he had the right stop and that's not the point When Paul says he was the chiefest of sinners in 1st Timothy. He said I was full of violent aggression blasphemy persecutor he He's as Paul describes himself in Timothy. He is the Osama bin Laden of his day He is he was a terrorist He was killing people who disagreed with his religion and he thought he had the mandate from God to do it This is Paul So he says the chiefest of sinners what he is really saying so when I do these HIV AIDS working classes I do for this gal out of Kansas. I was telling you about I usually start with you know I'm a recovering Pharisee and then I'll say something like and I've just confessed something worse to you than if I told you I'd been a prostitute in San Francisco And everybody laughs because we really don't believe it But Paul says when I got to the top of this rung chiefest of sinners That because it's not only your own personal sin manifested in religious ways But now you feel you have the right to compel anyone else to do what you want or Now we don't get to kill them Now we just write them out of our lives. There's other ways to kill people than physically We don't get to go kill them today in America in the Middle East I guess you get to go kill people for what you don't like, but here we've got that down pretty well No one's trying to kill folks for disagreeing with them. You can't write them out of your life The point is religion is a ladder up the wrong wall. You get to the top of it, and you might be externally Faultless But the amount of sin that that had driven deeper in Paul and then when Paul deals with it Or it gets dealt with in his life. He describes it later as I Died to through the cross. I died to the world and the world died to me. That's I Would read that going there must be something true about that. I don't get I Feel like I do now everything that God has freed in me Is his work and his work alone? When I got good at repressing my anger I had a lot to boast about I had discipleship programs I had written putting people through them and when people got through them They were externally better and we could pat ourselves in the back because we were more committed more devoted worked harder And you get to Galatians 6 14 forbid that I should boast in anything except the cross of Christ And we again this is Paul's super humble language Couldn't put it into any kind of practicality at all now man every good thing one in my life in the last 12 years is his doing and It's the cross of Jesus Christ that changes all of that and You know, I couldn't even sort that out more than 40 years ago more than excuse me more than when 10 12 years ago Because I had never heard What happened on the cross between a father and a son that reconciled us to the father? I Had been taught from the time I was born virtually in the local religious establishments nursery I Mean I was there every Sunday I got awards and I was 9 10 11 years old for two years perfect Sunday school attendance I mean, I'm talking goody-two shoes boy here. I'm talking about doing it right doing it hard Scripture memory verse contest. I memorized 132 verses in 13 weeks They have a nearly photographic memory closest one was 32 verses. I killed man And I got the new Bible for it. It was exactly like the one I got in two months before from a birthday But I had one now I had to buy was it were identical and I wasn't reading either one of them I'm gonna tell you it's just a horribly captivating thing and then to figure it doesn't find out When I was 42 That what had happened on the cross of Jesus Christ had never I was explained this way to me God is holy and he made us innocent We sinned and our holy our sinfulness has estranged us from God And now God's justice needs to be satisfied and so he comes up with this great plan I'm gonna take my son and I'm gonna put him on a cross and I'm gonna take out all my wrath for your sin on him I'll punish an innocent victim and then when he's done. I'm done there. I won't be mad at you anymore Now see I'm not dumb enough to think that that isn't great news I'm I grew up said third or four brothers When mom and dad are hauling the wrong child to the woodshed and it should be me and it's not because I Got away with it and they somehow thought my brother had done it and my brother's screaming. It wasn't me It was Wayne see I'm not dumb enough to know this is a good deal for me. I Never said yeah, you're right. It's really me take me to the woodshed. I would just say what what are you talking about? I ain't doing they got the right guy and mom and dad holds them off to the woodshed I said I like the wrong victim getting punished when I'm the one that deserves it So that whole view of the cross at one level. Okay, I'm good with that. I deserve to die and Jesus went for me Okay, that's good But what does it say about God? I think there's a conflict Well, tell me if we if we had a friendship come out of this weekend We decided we wanted to continue it past this weekend And then maybe you do something tomorrow that offends me and then I'm angry at you But you still want to be friends you asked me to forgive you You know maybe I could but you know No, I'm gonna go home and kill my boy It's a like you. I see you know what I would love to forgive you, but you know, I've got this I've got this wrath and it needs to be satisfied. So tell you what I'm gonna go home I'm gonna get my 25 year old son and a baseball bat. I'm gonna beat the living daylights out of him I'll take all my anger out for your sins on him. Then when I'm done, I can fly back here And you and I can be good friends The question is do you want to be friends with someone like that? Absolutely not that's the and I think that honestly is the dissonant view. We grow up with God Because I don't know what to do with that Because that's how we've been taught God and what we've been taught this view of the cross We've been taught is an appeasement view of the cross All false religions prior to the age of science or we have few of them with idols But going back to the times when they were false rigid false religions with idols like ball and asteroth and Malak and on and on and on What is it that those gods wanted from people? Remember, how was it? appeasement There's something you're doing wrong or some gift you need to give and you mollify the God you keep the God from being mad You're right and that's that's it. That's in all our stuff So many those cultures actually get to human sacrifice Why how do they get to human sacrifice? Sociologists tell us interestingly enough this is this whole transition from from Being nomadic people that kind of followed around where the food was To settling down an agrarian societies and communities is actually when the whole false gods things start Before then people moved around with the food. They were less at risk from the elements here There's a drought here. They just ventured on to a place where there wasn't a drought But when you settle down now, you're more a victim of the weather a Pestilence of marauding armies of whatever and it was in that time that our whole concept of false gods begin to arise Now, what's the best thing about a false guy best thing about a false god? It's false the best thing about a false god. It's false. There's no Malak. There's no bail There's that they don't exist. They're false So where do they come from we created them? We create we did for child sacrifice. Yeah with child sacrifice. We created the false gods And you see it even we joke about it But I play a little bit of golf from time to time and I play a lot with with strangers because I don't mind going down Of the course and playing with whoever shows up and mostly when I play my friends can't play So I do that a bit and you know Someone's having a bad day on the golf course every shot's going the wrong place So they're lipping out putts that should usually drop and they're not dropping. What does somebody say? Somebody's riled up the golf gods, right? They didn't say on TV during golf tournaments. Ah, somebody's got the golf gods mad Or somebody's late to a meeting and every light you can stop by every red light going across town and the joke is well somebody's not living right We laugh. They're not very serious about it, but there's something in eight in our way of thinking that when things go wrong I somehow deserve it and That's called shame It's called shame the one attendant thing left from the fall It was there immediately Adam and Eve felt ashamed. They'd been together naked for I Don't know how long maybe two days. Maybe if you once I don't know They never felt ashamed Then they do the one thing God asked them not to do and immediately they feel shame and they clothe now They clothe up with each other This is very different even now if you're not in the nudity and all that which I did most of us are We all seem to have clothes here this morning But it's okay for a husband and wife to be together and not be clothed. There's nothing wrong with that. We're not talking about thin air So why was it the first thing I have an Adam and Eve is they felt the need to be Covered there's a word for you First covering of the Bible is fig leaves and fig leaves are a very dumb choice for underwear You've ever worked in a fig orchard. Yes, they're large, but you know what they're also itchy This conversation with God is going on something like this. Yeah, we ate the food and God's look at them going fig leaves fig leaves What are these people thinking fig leaves? Covering always works against you Coverings about protecting ourselves from each other and God Neither of which we need so God So in our sense of shame We created these false gods and sociologists say you know start out with just you know the rain didn't come when they needed Them and so now the gods of the sky are angry and so we'll throw some grain in a river throw it to fires and offering and Then the rains come You know, the offering worked So then you didn't do it the next year and then the rains didn't come in the right time against all we forgot the offering So we do the offer and over hundreds of years. It didn't happen like in a few weeks over hundreds of years because The weather being as capricious as it is and years and we got killer bees literally killer bees in our attic at the moment we're trying to get rid of and I'm not I'm not a bee fan But the the bee guides at our house said this is the worst year in 10 years for bees their bee swarms are all over this area And just all kinds of bees well just you know Right amount of rain wrong about a rain whatever things happen And if when things go bad if you're thinking oh my gosh that gods are mad at us We got to give them an offering you give an offering and you start with something small I mean you give the least to God that you can give and get away with it That's all we saw that work so yeah You start out with little grains and stuff and that works for a few decades and then it's not working So you got to up the ante and so a little animals a little birds and things and we'll try that Okay, and that works for a while and then it escalated and it escalated and then finally it got in so many cultures whether it's virgins to the volcano in Hawaii whether it's 12 year old sons to Malik and in Canaan So many cultures got to child sacrifice as a way to atone for that sense of shame and failure And if something's wrong, we've angered the gods. We've got to appease the gods So our whole fleshy mindset towards gods is Needing to appease needing to curry their favor by performance by offering by whatever Jose expresses that I think about as well as it gets expressed poetically He talks about his own struggle with his own sin and he said what should I give to God in Exchange for my sin. Shall I give him the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? What's he talking about? Child sacrifice is that what it's going to take to make things right with God Do I need to give him my child will that do it? He expresses in that expression all that is behind the false gods that got to human sacrifice now I Was in Nepal and Kathmandu a number of years ago Hinduistic culture how many gods in Hinduism, you know 325 million yeah too many you think one's tough to appease Try appeasing 325 million of them and if you're baby sick if you're unemployed if you're going through a tough time in your life You know you've kicked off one of those But you don't know which one and All around Kathmandu you can't walk half a block without passing a shrine to the some god of something and You know what if you're on the outs with God you better not that could be the one you ticked off So you got a lot of candle leave a flower Something you've got to do something to appease when you got 325 million gods you deal with that Well all the false gods of the old covenant of the Old Testament excuse me Almost every one of them required child side. They've gotten that far in the process of now. We're giving 12 year old children to God what? You know what's 12 year old children? heard this one time It's because once they're teenagers. It's no longer a sacrifice That's about the time they turn nasty so Less less of a treasure to give up. I don't know if that's the reason But you're giving them at 12 because they're just getting to the point where they're going to help you on the farm instead of cost you That's their greatest treasure To you and when you're trying to appease a god You got to give him his your best treasure to appease and That's your kid at that age. That's what it comes to So many cultures around the world unconnected to each other except by that attendant sense of shame that is part of our humanity When God begins to deal with our invitation and access into him The number one barrier to our relationship with God as those Abba kids on his lap Is that sense of shame? Religion says it's sin It's the sin that keeps us from God the language I heard growing up. God can't bear to look on sin God is so holy and so righteous that he's got to separate himself Whenever has God done that? whenever When Adam and Eve are hiding in the garden after that faithful day when they did the one thing God asked them not to do and God comes to Visit with them as he had always done in the cool of the evening and now they've run off and hidden in the bushes and God says where are you and Adams who's marvelous at this hide-and-seek game. He's been playing it for years. He says we're hiding This is stupid. This is just this is a two-year-old behind the curtain You know we're playing hide-and-seek where little Amy is big balls in the curtain and little Amy laughing to death behind it He's never gonna find me and Amy's not that old yet, but we'll get to that because my kids did That's what this is. That's what this game. It's just God not know where they are Does God not know what they've done? God's not unaware of it. Is he hiding from them? He's not they're hiding from him Sin is how we hide sin is not what causes God to hide God is holy Righteous above anything your sin doesn't threaten his holiness. It never has it never will God can find us right in the midst of our worst brokenness and Bring his life and holiness to bear on us. He can do that and he does do that the idea that God can't bear to look on sin is one of those things the reason I think we we put the focus on sin is Because that the member the goal of religion is to conform behavior So by focusing on sin and performance repentance try and be better We can put the focus on sin The other reason we put the focus on sin in religious environment is because shame is our friend in religion Shame is the most powerful motivating tool in any one of our lives. They're every one of us here What would any of you here like everyone in this room to know everything about you everything you've ever done thought or act it out Would you want why why wouldn't we? Wouldn't we be embarrassed? Oh my gosh, I would be this thing about my life. I hope you never find out Oh now you're gonna go read my mail. I know I can't wait to go through his garbage can and find out what that is Those things about my life for all of us That we're embarrassed about a sense of shame and just and things we do that are wrong Oh my gosh, and the feeling of shame do we not know what that is we do don't all of us, okay? That's what keeps us from being able to feel safe with God and to know our Life in him. It's that that separated Adam and Eve and when God and Adam says, you know We ate from the tree and we were naked so we didn't And God's what who told you you were naked. Well, you know, we ate the tree. Ah, is God getting information here The Jesus I go the God I grew up with in Sunday school would have to run out of the garden out garden at this point screaming Run back up to heaven can't be near that can't bear to look on say it God finds them Looks at him and says that's a dumb choice for underwear and makes him some leather stuff Because God's into that I guess I don't know He kills a cow makes you look this will be better the whole fig leaf thing. It's really kind of And yeah, God curses them we cut The Old Testament religious view of God makes God out to be an abusive father Absolutely abusive God who needs to be a piece and dog on it. You better find something to give to him Because that's what's going to piece him and honestly we have reinterpreted the cross in that context unfortunately When God begins to make himself known to Abraham and I what I love about these we got little discussion at lunch About the Old Testament. I love about these Old Testament stories is you have this God of love I described you this morning. It is that God in the Old Covenant. Well, no, it's not he was meaner back then. No, he wasn't God is trying to make himself known to a culture who feels separated from him in their sin and shame And I want to Kind of talk about is the flip side of the same reality. It's it's the it's two symptoms of the same disease sin and shame and It makes God an unsafe guy to be around and somehow we've got to fix that So do you understand when God comes to Abraham as he's revealing himself now? Probably not for the first time, but the first time in scripture He's making a revelation of himself to the people of God who was going to be the Jews He starts with Abraham and Reveals himself as the one true God and gives Abraham this promise that just absolutely tortures him, doesn't it? You're gonna be a father of a great nation. He wasn't the father of one kid 25 years from the promise to the reality 25 pain-filled years for Abraham and Sarah. They're trying everything to get pregnant They're even trying to have a fake pregnancy with a handmaiden to get a kid that way trying to fulfill what God said he promised them Her oh, I can't imagine every month Sarah's disappointment. It's still not being pregnant still tell pastor childbearing years through menopause. She still has not had a kid Can you imagine how this promise tortured them? Better not to be promised You got promises in your life that haven't come to fulfillment and aren't they just maddening. Oh My gosh, gotta be better. Have you never told me? I like this father. We know you got to understand this about God. God has absolutely no sense of timing He literally lives in eternity God talks about things like they're coming tomorrow and they're 25 years off He talks about things that are like 30 years away, and they happen tomorrow Don't ever try and figure out God's timing. Jesus didn't even try In Acts chapter 1 when they're saying I said now that you're gonna bring the kingdom to Israel And he just looked at it at the times and seasons are in father's hands. They're not in mind It's not been given for you to know every time somebody says okay This is the doubt now we're now the Middle East is perfectly set up for the end of the age. Oh Go away I'm old enough to have read those books 40 years ago, and they were wrong then and I don't have any sense that they're right now Why because the times and seasons are in father's hands if we could figure it out. I think Jesus would have figured it out Said I don't even know what the father's up to that So living relationally isn't by we've got to figure out everything going on I I Really don't want to live past today today's enough for me Didn't Jesus say something like that in Matthew 6 Just live in the moment And I will talk more about that tomorrow because it's part of how we live in the life of this relationship But as God reveals himself to Abraham and kind of tortured him and not really torturing It's the God of love trying to make himself known to Abraham and then one day when he finally has the kid and the kids getting to be now older and Not a teenager yet because then it wouldn't be a sacrifice as I said But he's God says they remember I want you to take your son and take him to Mount Mariah and offer him as a sacrifice now Was that hard for Abraham? Of course. It was hard for Abraham who wants to give up their kid But was it a shock to Abraham? And it wasn't because every God he knew in the land of Canaan re child required child sacrifice So if the one true God required it not a surprise to him painful nonetheless, but not a surprise So he takes Isaac and it goes toward Mount Mariah You remember on the way to this is all an axe 9 10 11 12 and on you read about you don't know it on the way to Mount Mariah Isaac bright little boy He looks at me says you know what we got wood and we got fire. We've got no sacrifice Dad, where's the sacrifice? I Don't think Abraham's trying to be prophetic here. I don't think Abraham's that bright to be honest. I Think Abraham's got a kid. He's about to kill and he doesn't want the kids last few hours to be tortured With the idea that oh by the way You're the sacrifice. I think Abraham's gonna want to hold that information off just as long as possible, wouldn't you? So he turns to him and he says, you know what God will provide his own Literally in the Hebrew what he says is God will be his own That's what he says. God will be his own Interesting is Abraham trying to be prophetic. I don't think so. I think he's just I don't think he knows what's going on up There I think he's deflecting the passion from Isaac, but nonetheless. He speaks the words of God He gets him out Mariah. He's right execute the boy the angel interrupts him as a ram in the thick I want your boy and the message from the whole thing about Abraham is the precursor to the cross What it is saying is the cross is not our sacrifice for what God requires because God doesn't require one The cross is God's sacrifice for you So that you can know him so I had it all wrong I had it Jeff God need to be appeased what better gift than his own son the most precious Person that has ever lived on the face of the earth the innocent victim gets to be The sacrifice that satisfies God with us And it paints a picture of God. This is what I hope disturbs you for the rest of your life. I Hope some of you disagree with me when I'm done because I first time I heard it I went Okay, if that's true. Why am I 42 years old and no one's told me this I grew up in a Bible-believing fellowship I attended seminary and training classes that I've been a pastor for 20 all kinds of conferences I have never heard what I heard presented about the cross of Jesus Christ And I was in Australia hearing it from a couple of former Anglican priests And when I heard it I went oh my gosh if this is true That's how I responded to it Sarah and I talked about our flight home from Australia if this is true Then everything we've learned changes say what again What the it is true is I haven't told you yet. I'm just messing with your mind still But is there something you want me to go back that I said you want me to repeat? I just said it wasn't appeasement is all I think I've said so far. Oh, okay. There you go That's what you're looking for the cross of Christ is not the sacrifice God needed to love us It was a sacrifice. We needed to love him, which is not exactly what I said, but That's about as close as it gets That makes sense. I am explain Because I don't hurt the other way and when I first heard it I went First of all it answered every struggle I've had I could think of specific passages in Romans and Galatians and Corinthians That this answered I went oh my gosh now now if this makes sense number one Number two it made the father as endearing as I think Jesus told us he was And the cross was not about God needing to be appeased because he's got all this wrath and he had to spend it somewhere So he picked his only son that's good news and I think what Abraham is getting from the very beginning the precursor to it all is It's not about the sacrifice for God if if he ends up sacrificing Isaac and If the ram is the thing that satisfies God then honestly God's no different than Malik and God's no different from ball and when I was standing at an altar in Megiddo Where the archer guy told us 12 year old male children were killed on this altar to the God Malik And we're driving up from there in an Azeroth to be in the synagogue and on the bus I'm supposedly leading this tour for this tour cup, but I'm on the bus going and that's what I believe about my God I really do I believe my God is into child sacrifice his child, but nonetheless. Yeah, I do I Was so conflicted I just said God I need something shortly after that we were in Australia And I'm hearing something for the first time and this was so outside my paradigm that I actually went home and said When I prayed to God was I need a revelation of the cross of Jesus Christ It's how arrogant I was when I got into Australia This is a group of Christians that were at a month-long camp outside Melbourne They'd had these two Anglican brothers teaching the first ten days of the camp They'd invited me to teach the middle ten days of the camp and then they were going to teach themselves the last ten days of the camp And I'd flown in from teaching three weeks in Singapore to seminary and I'd flown into Australia got in the car Sarah had flown in from the states on that day we met at the airport And we're choosing to be part of the camp time in Australia as we were driving out to the camp I asked the guy said what are these guys teaching on by the way because you're you know, you're following up some other speakers You want to make sure you're better than them Obviously, you don't know what you're competing with anyway So I said what this guy's teaching I said, oh, they're teaching on the cross and I said the cross And and what I said was the cross. That's great What I was thinking inside is the cross. That's christianity 101 if they're excited about the cross they're gonna love my stuff and uh, that's And and his response to my saying oh the cross that's great. He says oh it is breathtaking I mean the cross is breathed out in the back. He's going Oh boy, they gotta love my stuff because the cross is the worst news in the whole book the cross You just kind of get past it quickly with salvation because I don't understand enough of it to make sense of it I just an angry god whacking something so I don't have to go to hell I'm okay with that because I don't want to go to hell But I just didn't understand how that fit into everything else the new testament was saying Or what the old testament was saying When I came away from there, we heard just the last two days of their teaching and it caused me to sit down with Them and pick their brains the last two days. I was there. What had you been teaching before? I want to hear it They had a thing they had written that I read through and I came home and I told sarah, you know, we've never heard this And we prayed god if this is true, we want a revelation of the cross of jesus christ. We just do And what's true in it? We want you to make sense of it in us or it isn't don't and then for the next six months I prayed that prayer virtually every morning not as an Incantation of any kind just saying god would you give me a revelation of the cross? I read through the new testament probably six times in that six months. I didn't read it and study it in detail I just read it like a newspaper just read it through looking for every reference to the cross to jesus dying Saying if these things are so it's going to make sense. It's got to make sense all the way through things Jesus said it's got to make sense all the way through things that paul wrote and peter wrote and john wrote right to the end and so Somewhere in this process About six months into it after I'd gotten back from australia There was a moment for me When what i'm going to share with you the rest this afternoon became clear And every change that I would have described to what sarah and I are doing now compared to doing 12 years ago Has nothing to do with leaving the institution It has nothing to do with doing house church or relational church or anything else All of it has to do with this view of the cross That is not about a father needing to be appeased But about a god about a father and a son Who had conspired together to cure our sin in the cross? Not punish it but cure it and uh That's what I want us to take a look at as we kind of pioneer through the afternoon. How how are we doing time? Totally lost here Okay, we're about are we going we've done another hour what a mouth this guy is um Let me set up a little bit and then we're going to come back from a break and talk about This cross and what really happened there and what I want to do now for those of you that want to do some reading later I'm going to give you a list of scriptures that I'm going to draw from That's set up for this and I won't necessarily turn to all of them and read all of them Because I'm just going to pull thoughts here and there And I I hate proof texting, but I'm telling you I could do 17 hours on the cross for you and we're Not going to have that time. We're going to do about an hour and a half maybe an hour 15 minutes after The what I'm going to draw from in this is All of the gospel accounts of the crucifixion. So all the last few chapters of all four gospels. I'm going to draw from that I'm going to draw from John chapter 10 Jesus being the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep no man takes my life from me But I lay it down on my car and take language from there I'm going to take language from Romans five six seven and eight Primarily chapter eight, but all all four of those chapters Get to this view of the cross I'm going to draw from first Corinthians chapter one. In fact, I'm going to do that now first Corinthians chapter one talks about the cross as a what remember The cross is the what of god to salvation Wisdom and power of god I want to primarily get to the word power Because first Corinthians one and two is all about power And and paul even saying to the Corinthians in the second chapter of that saying I didn't come to you with persuasive words of speech But with the spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on the wisdom of man But the power of god we're in the age of apologetics Everything that's been won in christianity the last 40 years is all intellectual conclusions about proof texting things And it's lifeless Not not not necessarily unpowerful. I think I think god's life is incredibly intellectual It is not only intellectual however And if we're just convinced on the basis of logic We still don't live with him as the god who wants to be lived paul's nuts about when i'm with you I determine they'll nothing except christ and him crucified for christ the cross is the power of god unto salvation So the language of first cringians one and two is the cross is a power It's not just an historic event. It is an historic event. Okay. I'm not saying it's not that But it's greater than that And paul talks about it being a power When paul writes to the galatians and he says you foolish galatians who has bewitched you What does he say next? remember Huh, pardon Later right after that galatians 3 1. What does he say right after that? That's next The reason we don't know the reason we don't know because I we used to skip it because it didn't make any sense to me Yeah, I'd get right on to you foolish galatians who's bewitched you How do you who be gone by the spirit go on and protect yourself through human effort? I can get there. There's another phrase there You foolish galatians who's bewitched you Before your eyes jesus was clearly portrayed as crucified. How do you who began? by the spirit protected the question to them was you foolish galatians You saw the cross of christ when They weren't Jerusalem. What was he talking about? He's talking about what paul preached when he was with them The thing he said he always preached the christ the cross christ and inclusive Before your eyes what he's saying is you had I thought A clear revelation of the cross of jesus christ if you would have had that You would never suck into religion again But you have The call the galatians have The reason we get church wrong Is because we get the cross wrong The reason we embed our life into institutions and performance and accountability is because we don't understand what happened on a cross Right is not because we got church wrong not because we're following the wrong principles of church life It's because it began with an angry god that needed to punish sin And when he punished sin and cured it so he forgave us in the sun now We owe it to him to live righteous lives And we subvert the cross by our own interpretation of the cross Spurgeon who said a lot of wonderful things also and this is not one of his better moments Chalk it up to a bad day. There's a lot of things you can hear in old tapes of mine that are pretty bad So I don't don't think i'm just picking on charles spurgeon But he said this one that and if god did not spare his only son, how is he going to spare you if you don't do What's right? Now there's good news for you. There's a gospel to preach all around the planet If god didn't spare his only son This is the abusive dad. How is he going to spare you if you don't get it right? So What I think is incredible is we have the gospel of jesus christ in the world right for about the first 24 hours of a person's life It's by grace and grace alone. You can't make yourself better for god You just got to come and god forgives and healer. We have got it right for about 24 hours Then when they wake up the next day, it's okay, but here's what it takes to be a good christian And now we start packing on the principles the rules the rituals the way we live to show that you're serious about this And dog on it after all god did for you dog on it. You better start doing this stuff horribly abusive But we call it love. So we're so confused. I think it's the brothers and sisters and the family We're so confused as to what this life is because we've been given this Pile of do's and don'ts. It's the same law that the cross fulfilled and opened up a whole new way of relating to him That is absolutely different And the base of that is the cross so that paul could say to him if you would have gotten the cross dog gone it You wouldn't be sitting here going we can do this Human effort following the rules. We'll do better rules We've got good rules dog gone it and we're working hard See we read galatians when I was in the rules and said no problems Judaism It's that circumcision thing feasting and we're not doing that. We weren't requiring anybody to get circumcision in our family So we're not we're not doing that But when you read galatians, it's about substituting the life of god For rules and regulations. I'll read you a bit of galatians too, which is absolutely profound tomorrow But that's what paul says them. How do you see the galatians three I'm giving you this list of scripture still. I just I sorry I parked myself on galatians one of my favorite books, by the way I really like that puppy, but All of galatians, but galatians three and galatians six And galatians two especially okay, but all of galatians second Corinthians five huge. We're gonna look at that right after we take a break and then Second Corinthians five and then Hebrews. Oh, excuse me Ephesians two Colossians two Hebrews nine and ten And those and then I was a lot in first John, but we won't so those are the big cross passages They're the ones that when you read them again after what you're gonna hear this afternoon And I'm gonna I'm gonna pause it to you another possibility For what the cross was all about I don't expect you to buy it at the end of the day If you do you're too gullible or god already prepared you because I'm not that bright enough to give it to you Um fact words will fail me of anything I will share what I'm going to share with you after our break Words just don't Do enough of what I would love to just I'd love to just you know put it in your brain But that's the holy spirit shop Uh and he will I think people who say you know I want a revelation of the cross if what Wayne's saying is right I want to know it if it's not god. I want to know that it's not it's a pray that I could be deluded and I got an email the other day fact said I was deluded and I was Great pity. I think I put on my blog. Yeah, so some of you already read it. That's why you're laughing But yeah, I got one of those from a senior pastor in North Carolina, which senior pastors are really scary They're even scarier from the south. They're very scary down there and uh This guy just I don't know something ticked him off But he just thought I was the deluded man deluding the family and he was a little upset with me So, uh, I didn't put his name on the blog because I wouldn't do that to him But I people hear that all the time. So I reason to put that on there Just say here's a way to respond to that kind of thinking because I've heard for him You know some guy wrote me this morning and just said man He must devastate you to read stuff like that and I wrote him back and I said, yeah 10 years ago it would Right now. It's not about me. So I you know, I I'm sorry. I I remember feeling like him 15 years ago I could have written the same email. He wrote me. So I I don't hate him for it. I just you know what god hopefully he's on my site for some reason Somebody's ticked him off or something. So maybe he's gonna open. I don't know god touch him. That's my prayer So anyway, those are the passages. I hope you get a chance to browse through those and we'll talk about it but Let's take a break. Let me give you, uh, you know 10 minutes or so. I know you get talking and have fun with each other