Every once in a while a song comes along that I become completely obsessed with.
Once it was Sowing Season by Brand New.
Another time it was Savior King by Hillsong United.
Another time it was Politik by Coldplay.
For a while it was Make Believe by Jeremy Larson.
Those songs helped to define those times in my life. They are my soundtrack for those days.
This song by Elevation Worship is my latest addition to that list:
One of my favorite verses in the bible is Psalm 73:23
“Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.”
It’s a great verse to send to someone who is hurting or praying or hoping…
It’s a great mental image: God holding my hand. The Creator & Sustainer of the Universe… holding my hand. God is with me.
That’s a nice place to be.
What’s better than that?!
Good question.
IN. In is better.
Colossians 1:27 says that Christ is IN me. Not just WITH me.
Ephesians 1 says that the Holy Spirit is attached/connected/woven into my very soul (1:13-14). The letter goes on and reminds us that we now have within us the same exact power that raised Jesus from the grave (1:19-20)!
It’s almost hard to believe! It’s almost too good to be true… maybe it seems that way because I haven’t fully tapped into IN.
The same power that raised Jesus from the grave is IN me. Not just WITH me. IN.
I’m into IN. I like IN.
I need IN.
WITH was great, and in some sense it’s still true, but…
IN is better.
IN > with
I was listening to one of Brennan Manning’s final sermons, and I had to write this part down. You can find a clip that contains this HERE.
“Do you believe that the God of Jesus
loves you beyond worthiness and unworthiness,
beyond fidelity and infidelity,
that he loves you in the morning sun and the evening rain,
that he loves you when your intellect denies it,
your emotions refuse it,
and your whole being rejects it.
Do you believe that God loves without conditional reservation,
and loves you this moment as you are,
and not as you should be?”
I believe it.
I was listening to one of Brennan Manning’s final sermons, and I had to write this part down. You can find a clip that contains this HERE.
“Do you believe that the God of Jesus
loves you beyond worthiness and unworthiness,
beyond fidelity and infidelity,
that he loves you in the morning sun and the evening rain,
that he loves you when your intellect denies it,
your emotions refuse it,
and your whole being rejects it.
Do you believe that God loves without conditional reservation,
and loves you this moment as you are,
and not as you should be?”
I believe it.
If you’re a follower of Jesus, and this video doesn’t make you angry, one of these two things are true: Either you are WAY more patient than I am, or you are a goon. I’m guessing most of you are just way more patient than I am.
Usually this sort of thing just makes me say, “Oh man, there’s another one of those fake pastors peddling another fake gospel. So lame…“. But this one got under my skin for a couple reasons:
First, I can’t stand gimmicks in the Church. Hey pastors, I love you, and I want you to succeed. I want 6 billion people coming to church on Sundays (or Saturday nights). So listen: If you’re living out the way of Jesus, you don’t need to give away an Xbox. (Side confession: I’ve given away a few in the past, so I’ve got my own gimmicky sins to repent of).
The gospel has made it a long way without gimmicks. The Good News IS ACTUALLY GOOD NEWS, and it doesn’t need your sprinkles on top. If it’s the gospel, the real gospel, then people will rip a hole in your roof to join you. All sorts of people. Poor people, rich people, dirty people, clean people, presidents, peasants, and even teenagers.
Second, I can’t stomach this guy because he’s a false prophet. He’s worse than guys who promise temples that never show up… He promises hope where it can’t be found because HE WANTS YOUR MONEY. The downside for the “lottery winners”: next month’s bills are on the way! What is their hope built on? Winning again? Oh, and their church’s attendance is growing- so their chances of winning are decreasing, but that won’t stop them, will it…
And this is the garbage that CNN picks up to cover?
Jesus is enough.
Fell free to poke holes in my philosophy, I welcome it. But I needed to vent this one.
This week:
Lindsay and I found out that someone had stolen our debit card number and purchased porn subscriptions online using our money. It sucks to be the victim of a crime, ESPECIALLY when the perp is a perv. It breaks my heart to know that someone out there is desperate enough for porn that they would steal a pastor’s credit card. I believe in Jesus, even when the world seems beyond repair.
The next day: Lindsay was driving through a construction zone in Chandler when some chump in a lifted SUV threw a glass bottle at her while driving. He (or one of his chump passengers) threw the bottle, and then they followed my wife into a parking lot to verbally assault her and her passengers. She had her mom, sister, and a baby in the car. This chump cut Lindsay off in the parking lot and shouted some words at her that no woman should ever hear, especially MY WIFE. She called me crying just a minute after it all went down, and I’m glad I didn’t get there in time to see this teenager and his truck full of buddies. In case you’re wondering, it was a lifted Tahoe with flames on the side, and his license plate was AEP 9075. I believe in Jesus, even when the world seems beyond repair.
Tonight my friend Josh Barton picked up his car that he had left overnight at our church… someone had carved some pretty vulgar stuff into his hood, dumped water in his car, and broke a mirror off. It looks like it was random, since he left it overnight, but it’s still a bit too much. I believe in Jesus, even when the world seems beyond repair.
I believe that God will redeem all of this junk.
Revenge only keeps evil in circulation.
But I’m a work in progress, and I’ll admit that I wanted to physically hurt that kid who threw a bottle at my wife.
I am teaching in our main service at Mission for the first time this weekend. Ironically enough, I’m teaching on the passage that I taught on during my interview weekend at Calvary. Mark and I were talking last month about what message would be a great fit for this weekend (which is a baptism service), and he picked this passage. I couldn’t be more excited! We’ll be wrapping up each of the services with a whole bunch of baptisms that will take place during the final songs. Our worship pastor C.J Bergmen has some amazing songs picked out to complement the message and the baptisms.
I’m sure that most of the people who come this weekend will have heard the story of the Prodigal Son. Maybe all of them. Maybe they’ve heard about the wandering sheep or the lost coin. But this is one of those stories that should never get old. I love what Tim Keller says in “The Prodigal God” about familiar stories like this one:
“One of the signs that you may not grasp the unique, radical nature of the gospel is that you are certain that you do.”
Dallas Willard put it another way in The Divine Conspiracy:
“Presumed familiarity breeds unfamiliarity.”
Just when we think we “get it”, God peels back another layer of this beautiful gospel.
It really is good news… no matter how badly it gets misrepresented by picketers and “pastors” from Tempe.
I’m grateful to be in a place where they trust me to teach from the main stage. Mark has me scheduled to teach once a month for the next 5 or 6 months… but I think he wrote it in pencil HAHA! I’ll try not to be horrible. It’s really hard to mess up Luke 15, but I’ve seen it done.
I will be including some childish (moderately inappropriate) humor in my sermon though, just to maintain my youth pastor’ness. Stay tuned 🙂
I am taking a couple of weeks to talk about freedom with my students. Today seemed like a good day to kick that sort of conversation off. It’s kind of a hot topic this week, ya know.
Galatians 5:1 says that, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”
It sounds redundant…
Freedom is a way of life. We are free to live in that freedom. Does that make sense? I used this example to help explain it to my students:
A few years ago I had a volunteer in my youth ministry who was amazing. He was seriously a great guy. He was funny, intelligent, relational, and always available for our youth ministry gatherings, activities, etc. On the surface he seemed like the ideal volunteer. He had placed his faith in Christ- he was “born again” to use the words of Jesus. He had been set free, but… he wasn’t experiencing freedom. He was still in a noose of sexual sin. One night he arranged a meeting with an underage girl after talking to her online, but when he arrived at their meeting place he was met by police officers. He’s currently in prison.
Born again…heaven bound… made new… forgiven…
But in the stranglehold of sin.
My friend had been managing his bondage (Dallas Willard covers this in “The Divine Conspiracy”. Chapter 2 alone is worth the cost of the book).
Being in a stranglehold is a horrible way to live, if you can even call it living.
Jesus sets us free, and then invites us into freedom.
So I am begging my students to take off the masks, and to leave them off. To be honest about who we are. And to love each other right where we’re at. And to tap into the freedom that only God can provide.
I hope that my friend in prison is finally experiencing that freedom, which has nothing to do with the walls that surround him. And I hope that you are too. Because if the Son has set you free, you are free.
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