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Andy Stanley - The Way in a Manger Part 2 A New Way of Life · Andy Stanley Sermons

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So one of Jesus's most controversial statements is also one of his most quoted statements.
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In fact, if you're not a Christian or not from our religious tradition
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or maybe a different religious tradition, you've heard this before, even though maybe
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not of you, I guess you knew that Jesus said it. But even
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if you don't agree with it, it's it's so it's so well known.
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Most people have heard this before. And we touched on this last time.
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He said, I am the way, the Truth and the life. And
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you know, on this that's a lot, but by itself it's a little
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bit vague, right, I mean, I'm the way to what you know,
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I'm the way to wear And how can a person eye says I,
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how can a person be the truth? And how can a person be the
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life? And if he had stopped there, it would be a little bit
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odd, but it certainly wouldn't be controversial. But he didn't stop there.
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He went on to claim, as you know, who he was on or
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who he was the way to. Now unfortunately, and this may disturb you
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a little bit if you grew up in church me and that's okay, it's
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okay to be disturbed. Unfortunately, what follows after this, and many of
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us can quote this, what follows after this is usually interpreted as very exclusive.
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In fact, maybe one of the reasons you're not a Christian is what
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Jesus says next. It's like, it's just too exclusive, it's too small.
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It's it's it's you know, it's it's too limiting. And that's understandable.
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And unfortunately, what the way this passage has been interpreted, oftentimes it
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makes it sound that way an attempt to exclude people. But if you read
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the Gospels, or if you follow Jesus through the book of Matthew, Martin
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Luther or John, you cannot walk away from the Gospels with the impression that
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Jesus was trying to be exclusive or limiting. In fact, it was the
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very opposite. This not that was not Jesus intent. He was not drawing
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a smaller circle. I mean, that's what the first century religious leaders did.
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They drew a small circle R four and no more. Actually it was
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our twelve twelve tribes of Israel, and no more. And not even all
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the twelve tribes of Israel, only the law abiding and in some cases only
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the law abiding men the women were kind of on the edge. There was
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some doubt as to whether or not, you know, women would even be
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a part of God's future kingdom. It was very strange. And Jesus wasn't
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coming to draw a smaller circle. He came to expand the circle. I
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mean the other the verse that we've all heard for God so loved the world.
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Yeah, like the whole thing, right, So he wasn't being exclusive.
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What he says next is actually inclusive, which is great news for everybody.
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That God's covenant with Israel that we talk about from time to time,
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it was exclusive on purpose, for a purpose, and it was perfect for
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the reason it was given. But Jesus knew covenant was the way for the
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rest of us, for the world. And so he continues, I am
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the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to
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the Father except through me, or put another way, he could say this
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in a positive way, and this was his point. Read the gospels.
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Everybody has access to the Father through me. His point. And what these
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guys heard, because this is important. They were gathered for their Passover meal,
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so they're celebrating this extraordinary event that happened in the history of the Jewish
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people. So when he said this, this is a for us, It's
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like, yeah, duh, where Christians we get it. This was a
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major paradigm shift. This was so disruptive. Essentially, Jesus was saying,
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the old way is no longer the way. The old way was you had
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to be born a son or perhaps a daughter of Abraham to be part of
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God's righteous tribe, in God's righteous acceptable group. And Jesus is saying,
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no, that was the old way and it's over. I'm introducing something brand
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new. In this new way. You're not born into it. You can't
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birth your way. You can't obey your way, you can't sacrifice your way
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in, you can't serve your way in. You can't even pray your way
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to the Father. But there is a way to the Father, he said.
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They're looking at him. This was so difficult for them. He said,
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I and the way. Everyone can come to the Father. Everyone can
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come to the Father by means of me. I am the way. And
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in fact, if you have any doubts about this, if you're thinking,
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oh, andy, I think you're kind of messing with this popular text,
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just remember this. And if you grew up in church like me, you
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know this, and if you didn't grow up in church, gosh, I
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wish you knew this. At the end of jesus Ministry, after he rose
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from the dead and he gathers with his guys and the men and women and
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the group. You remember, this is such a famous scene. What he
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said to them, he said, I want you This was his message was
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so inclusive. He said, I want you to take what I've taught you
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and what you have seen to the entire world. And our English text says
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to all nations, which some of them were thinking, you, well,
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you mean all neighborhoods, like from Judea to Galilee, and maybe we'll skirt
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around the Samaritans, because we know they're kind of off, you know.
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And Jesus is like, no, this isn't a Jewish message. This is
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this is a message for the entire world. I'm drawing a circle larger than
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you ever thought imaginable, because I have come to reveal the will of the
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Father for every single person and every single nation, for every single generation.
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That this was a message for sinners like me, the sinners like your husband
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or your wife, just kidding, for sinners like all of us, right
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for your middle schoolers and your high school students. This was a message for
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all people. So when the shepherds were out in the fields watching over their
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flock by night, and lo, the Angel of the Lord shown around about
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them, and they were sore afraid. You know the story, the Christmas
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story. The angels were correct when they said, we have good news of
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great joy for all people. Today in the city of David, a savior
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has been born to you. The doors have been thrown wide open, and
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everybody is invited. So at Christmas we celebrate the arrival of that Way,
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the Truth and the Life. We celebrate the Way in a Manger. If
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you weren't with us last time, we're in part two of this series entitled
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The Way in a Manger, where we're talking about this extraordinary thing that Jesus
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said in this extraordinary thing that Jesus demonstrated throughout his ministry. Now understandably,
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when Jesus made this statement, I'm the Way the Truth in life. No
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one comes to Father through me. The guys in the room, because this
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is the very night he's arrested. So there's a lot going on, there's
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a lot of emotions. Judas slips out, They don't know where he's going.
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I mean, a lot's about to happen. They didn't understand this the
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way he meant it. I mean they in fact, if you read the
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passage, they ask so many questions. They're so confused, and it did
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not become clear to them, honestly until after the resurrection. In fact,
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the night that he said this, they're thinking. By the end of that
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night, they're thinking, yeah, you're the way, all right, You're
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the way to a short lived life. You're the way to an early execution.
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You're a way to get arrested. I mean, everything about your way
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is bad, because that's why they ran off when he was arrested. But
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after the resurrection, this becomes clear to them. In fact, it was
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so clear. Some of you know this. The early Christian movement was called
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the Way. This was so central they named their movement after this idea that
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Jesus is the way. So they just called their movement. We just called
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it. They didn't call it the Church. They called it the way Jesus
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was. In fact, they discovered who he claimed to be the way to
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the Father. But more than that is we talked about last time, Jesus'
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actions and his reactions to everyone he met reflected not just the way to the
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Father, but the ways of the Father. And this is why he says,
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I'm the truth and I'm the life. I'm the truth of how the
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world works and what's best for you, and i am the life you must
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live. And I'm a reflection of the life that has been given to you.
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And I'm a reflection of the life you have been called to live if
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you're going to be my follower. So his invitation, this is so powerful.
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We talk about it all the time. His invitation didn't begin or end
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with believe something or believe in me. His invitation began then, and it
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begins with each of us with this invitation, I want you to follow me.
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I want you to follow me. He was more than simply a way
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to life. He was the way of life. And he taught and he
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modeled and illustrated this different way of life, a different way of living,
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the way of living. And we again, I don't know how to overemphasize
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this, this way of living that Jesus demonstrated. It is the way,
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and this is why you're so adamant about it. And we're going to get
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to one specific application in a minute. He was so adamant about it because
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he came from the Father who created you and created all of us, and
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God, the Father knows best how we are to live, which means he
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knows how to make life work. This is why we stay all the time
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around here following Jesus, not just believing. Following Jesus will make your life
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better and will make you better at life. It'll make you a better father
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and husband, and wife and mother. It'll make you a better employer and
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employee, because Jesus came to show us the way to live, the way
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we were created to live, and we all have lived long enough to know
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this. When you live against that grain, when you live against the way
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you were designed to live, there is unnecessary friction. There's unnecessary heartbreak,
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there are unnecessary bad decisions, and there are loads of regrets. And your
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heavenly Father send his son into the world not simply to be the way to
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the Father, but to show us and demonstrates the demonstrate the ways of the
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Father, the way that leads to a full life, a fulfilling life.
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On one occasion, Jesus called it an abundant life. But this is challenging
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for us, because this way, this way of Jesus, it requires something
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of us. But it's like a good parent requiring something of their children.
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Sometimes we require things of our children. They resist. But we know,
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son, if you'll just trust me, if you'll just do this, if
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you'll just practice this, if you'll if you'll just do what I'm saying in
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you're gonna look back and you're gonna be so glad at you that you did.
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And so the father sent the son with that same sense of urgency because
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simply believing, believe, simply believing doesn't require a way of life. If
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we're just gonna be believers, all that requires is a box of belief in
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a box of beliefs hasn't ever changed anything. In fact, you know,
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in fact, if you're not a Christian, you get this because you're not
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a Christian. And you know some Christians and they're like the worst people you've
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ever met, and they lead with their beliefs. They are so quick to
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tell you what they believe. Here's what we believe, here's what Christians believe.
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Here's what the people in our church believe. And you say to yourself,
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or maybe you say to them, and we deserve it. It's like,
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yeah, that's what you say, you believe. I don't see it.
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I mean, I don't know. You may say I've never read the
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whole Bible, but I know enough about Jesus. You know you ain't him.
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Okay, there's not very much I see in you that reminds me of
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anything I've read about Jesus. That's what happens when our face it's just a
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box of beliefs, and we lead with our beliefs rather than leading with the
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way that Jesus has called us to live and modeled us to live the way
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of life that he came to demonstrate for us. Jesus did not leave us
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with the option of living with a box in the list of beliefs. Later,
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in fact, and this is really convicting. Okay, So I'm with
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you. I'm sitting with you in the audience on this one, all right.
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Later, in that same conversation where Jesus, I'm the way the truth
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of life. Nobody gets to the Father except through me. In that same
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conversation, he smiles and he says that these guys who've been with him for
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three or three and a half years, he says the guys, if you
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love me, to which when we read this, we think, what do
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you mean if we love you? Of course we love you. I mean
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you died on the cross for our sins. You paved the way to God.
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We can live with a clear conscience. We can live with hope that
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we're going to see loved ones again. I mean, what do you mean
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if we love you? We have peace with God. There's no if about
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it. I mean, Jesus, it's Christmas. This is why we celebrate
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your birth because we love you, for which I would imagine I don't know
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that Jesus is very grateful that we celebrate his birthday. But you'll notice he
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didn't finish it this way. If you love me, he'll celebrate my birthday.
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Right. Do you know what he said? This isn't as famous averse,
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but it's in the same conversation. If you love me, this is
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the Good Father speaking through the son. You'll keep my commandments. In other
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words, if you trust me, if you really believe I'm who I say
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I am, then you will keep my commands because you'll know as later,
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another author says, because my commands are not burdens some, because my way
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is Jesus would say, I'm the good shepherd and I'm leading you in a
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good way. And yes there's some bumps, and yes it's gonna be difficult,
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and yes there are challenges, but trust me, if you love me,
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you will keep my commands. Believers, you know, Christians, you
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just wanted people. Believers are like, whoa whoah woah. I thought we
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were done with commands. I thought this was just about you know, loving
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Jesus. Can't can't we can't we just celebrate your birthday and be done with
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it? Can we make it that simple? Again? Jesus doesn't leave us
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that option. In fact, again, I'm putting the words in the mouth
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that Jesus, so you know, don't take this too seriously. But I
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think Jesus would respond to that. Hey, if you got to choose one
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or the other, I would prefer you embrace the way I live over celebrating
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the day I was born. Celebrating the day I was born doesn't mean you
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love me. It just means you're grateful for what I've done for you.
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But if you love me, I want you to follow me the way in
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a Manger came to show us, the way we were created to live.
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That's why he came as one of us, to live as among us,
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to model the way for us, the ways of the Father. Because the
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way of the Father, this is so important, the way the Father actually
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created us to live. Now central and here we go. Then we're going
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to get super focus here for a minute. Central to the idea of the
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way the Father invited us to live. Central to that, and at the
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epicenter of that is this single solitary command that Jesus gave his disciples and gave
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us that is sort of the umbrella for all the other commands. In fact,
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everything else in the New Testament as it refers to what Jesus taught,
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are really just applications of this one idea. They're kind of the details.
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But here's the one central idea, and the central idea we talk about it
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all the time, is that if we're going to follow Jesus, we are
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called to do for others precisely what he did for us. That we're called
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to live our lives in such a way that reflect that we do for others
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what God through Christ has done for us, and what did he do for
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us. He reconciled us to God, the Father and then as we're going
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to see in the next ten minutes, he looks at us who have said
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we love you, and he says, if you love me, you'll keep
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my commands. Okay, what are your commands? Well, let me give
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you the big one, because this is kind of the overarching one. I
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want you to respond and treat people the way that God that I have treated
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you through my son, and you've seen how he's treated you, And specifically,
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I want you to begin by reconciling with each other because I have reconciled
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with you. He's commanded us to reconcile with each other because God, through
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Christ has allowed us and given us the opportunity to reconcile with him. And
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our tendency, I get this, this is how I was raised. Our
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tendency is to go, Wow, thank you for allowing me to have a
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relationship with you. We're good to go. And Jesus is like, no,
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We're not done there. Now. I want you to turn around and
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do for your brother and your sister and your enemy what I have done for
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you. And Jesus says, if you love me, you will and if
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you love me, you'll trust me, and trust me. He would say,
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this is how you were designed and created to live. You were created
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to live a life of reconciling relationships. You were not created to live with
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anger. You were not created to live with bitterness. You were not created
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to live with resentment. You were not created to live with unresolved conflict with
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people. And though you can't control how they respond to you, you were
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created to open the door to relationship to them, just like my father opened
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the door of relationship to you. That reconciliation was the purpose of the way
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and the manger to begin with, to reconcile God to his rebel race.
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And those of us who have experienced that reconciliation that fix that peace with God
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that we long for and desire, we have been called to extend that same
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reconciliation to the people around us. We're to do for others what God through
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Christ did for us as God. And this is hard, okay. As
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God took the initiative for God so loved the world, he's like I'm sending
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my son in. As God took the initiative to reconcile with us, we
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as Jesus followers, are to take the initiative to reconcile with our brothers and
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our sisters, and our friends, and the broken relationships and even the people
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that have no desire to reconcile with us. Just as God, and this
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is so important, just as God work to remove obstacles to reconciling with us,
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we have been called to remove whatever obstacle we can to reconciling with the
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people whose relationships are broken, loose ends. You hope you don't run into
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him at Kroger, right. You hope you don't have to see him for
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Christmas. You hope there's enough people there where you can kind of move around
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the outskirts of the living room into the kitchen. You can dodge each other
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for two hours until finally somebody goes home. It's just too awkward. And
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this is the very thing Jesus says is at the epicenter of what it looks
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like to follow me. Just as God removed obstacles, we are as well
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the reconciled. Here's the kind of the bottom line. If you have to
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leave early, the reconciled should be reconcilers. This is the way of Jesus,
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and if we love him, this will become our way as well.
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Now to just show you what a big deal this is. Perhaps in my
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opinion as I read the Gospels, perhaps in fact, I think this is
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that Jesus' most I would say, inconvenient application of anything he taught has to
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do with reconciling with other people. I mean, the thing that I think
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when Jesus said what I'm about to read, When Jesus said this, I
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think everybody in the audience was like, oh, we're not doing that.
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I mean, this is so this is so extreme. We talked about it
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not too long ago, so it's not going to surprise many of you.
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This was so extreme, but because it's so cultural, we read right through
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it. But I'm at the end of the message today. I'm going to
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try to bring this back around and kind of wrap a little more modern culture
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or a modern application. But here's what he said. He said, if
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you go to Jerusalem, and if they didn't live in Jerusalem, and you
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decide to go to the altar to make a sacrifice, if you are offering
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your gift at the altar, and again, if you lived in Jerusalem,
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this took maybe a quarter of the day, depending on how long the line
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was. If you lived outside Jerusalem. This could take days to travel to
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Jerusalem, spend the night on your way, especially if you lived in Galilee
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and you got an offering, either purchase it there in Jerusalem or at the
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temple, or you bring it with you and you're going to make a peace
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offering with God. You're going to sacrifice for some sin you committed. Again,
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You're there to clear your conscience so you and God are on good terms.
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He says, if you get there and you are in line and you're
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you know, he there's three people ahead of you and you're doing that thing
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where it's like three two, oh, she is so slow, like the
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grocery line, like, oh my goodness, I got in the wrong line.
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Can I come up there? You know, because there were multiple lines
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to make sacrifices, you know, at the at the altar of the temple.
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He says, if you're offering your gift and you remember that your brother
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or sister, and this could be literal or figurative, you know, a
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son or daughter of Abraham. You remember that your brother or sister has something
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against you. They're angry with you, either because there's something you did or
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maybe something they did, and the relationship is strained, it's broken. You
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hope you don't see each other in the marketplace. Leave your gift there in
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front of the altar. But I this is why they were like, we're
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not doing that. It took me days to get here. I've been in
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line for hours, he says. I know. I want you to take
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you a little cage of pigeons that you were going to sacrifice. I want
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you to set them in the shade. I want you to tie your lamb
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up. I want you to look to the people behind you and say,
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hey, can you take care of this? I have something to do,
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he says, First, before you clear your conscience with God, or before
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you make this sacrifice, to be right with God, first of first importance,
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first in sequence, before before you do business with God. This is
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what just I mean. This was completely backwards from everything they've been taught,
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backwards from everything I was taught. He says. First you go be reconciled.
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There's our word to the brother or sister, the employer, the X
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that you've left things kind of hanging loose with and you know there's more to
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be done. You know there's another conversation to be had. You know there's
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restitution to be made. You know, there's apology that's had, an apology
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that's hanging out there. You first go be reconciled with him, then you
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come offer your gift. And I'm telling you, when he said this,
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the audience is like, that's crazy. Wait, wait, wait, you
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want me to prioritize my relationship with my brother in law over making peace with
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God, to which when you read the teaching of Jesus, Jesus would say,
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well, see, you can't have peace with God until you make peace
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with your brother in law because you are to be a reconciler, because you
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have been reconciled the way of Jesus, the way of Jesus. It's the
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way of reconciliation with God, yes, but with the people around us as
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well. And when possible, your enemy, your enemy, I mean,
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the same sermon that he told this story. He's like, yeah, and
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love your enemy, and pray for those who persecute you. You know what,
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prayer for it. You know why we pray for those who persecute us.
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Pray for those who persecutes us. You know what does? It brings
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the temperature down in our heart, so we can begin to see little baby
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steps we could take toward reconciliation. To reconcile. This is the message of
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Jesus. This is the way of Jesus. This is what we're called to.
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For those of you who aren't Christians, you might be one if we've
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gotten this right. The reconciled should be reconcilers. So what I'm gonna do
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real quick for the next about eight minutes, We're gonna do a lightning round
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because I want you to understand. This isn't peripheral. This isn't like an
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ad on, This isn't like yet. Jesus mentioned that a couple of times.
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This is so central, and not only is it central to the teaching
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of Jesus, the apostles afterwards took this same message forward. And you're you're
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gonna understand why in just a minute. So I want to begin with something
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that most all of us are familiar with. And even again, if you
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grew up in church and left a long time ago, you're familiar with this,
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the Lord's Prayer, something that many of you quote, maybe every day,
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multiple times a day. This is one of the first things I taught
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my children help them memorize. Because of Jesus. I mean, if Jesus
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says this is how you should pray, I think this is how you should
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pray. Right, so, I think it's an important prayer and right in
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the you know, embedded baked into this prayers. Listen to this phrase that
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maybe you said a thousand times and never thought about it. And forgive us
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our debts, as we all have forgiven our debtors. Forgive us of our
23:02
sins, as we are in the habit of forgiving the people who sinned against
23:04
us, it's assumed. And forgive us of our trespasses is the word you
23:10
may have learned. Forgive us of our trespasses as Oh yeah, it's a
23:12
lifestyle for me, as I continually forgive those who's trespassed against me. It's
23:18
assumed that they're reconciled. Those who can go to God for forgiveness are reconcilers.
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When day Peter comes to Jesus, Jesus had just done a little teaching
23:30
on forgiveness, and Peter's like okay, He's like the rest of us,
23:33
He's like okay, but there's got to be a limit. So one day
23:36
Peter comes to Jesus. You're familiar with this, if you grew up in
23:38
church, and he asked, Jesus, Lord, okay, I heard what
23:41
you said, But how many times? I mean, come on, how
23:45
many times do I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up
23:49
to seven? When I was a kid, you know I would do two
23:52
to three. But I've been following you, so let's say seven. I
23:56
mean, seven's a lot for you know, especially if they keep doing the
23:59
same thing over and over. And Jesus says no, some of you remember
24:03
their response, No, he says, I tell you not seven times seventy
24:07
seven times? They're like what? And then before they can ask, is
24:11
that like literal or figurative? Or mean? Who's even gonna count that high,
24:14
Jesus launches into a parable where he makes the point that there is no
24:18
limit to how much we should forgive, because there is no limit to how
24:22
much God has forgiven us, and we're to do for others with God through
24:26
Christ has done for us the reconciled, or to be the reconcilers. Then
24:33
there's this other scene, this other narrative from the life of Jesus that many
24:36
of us are familiar with. Some of us grew up singing the song Jesus
24:40
comes to Jericho. There's a tax a chief tax collector who lives there.
24:44
His name is Zachias. And Zachias was a little man. Thank you.
24:49
That's better than we little man when they taught us this awful song, A
24:52
wee little man, and a wee little man was he. I mean,
24:53
we have come a long way since those days. Okay, things we shouldn't
24:57
say and don't say and don't put in our songs. Okay. Anyway,
25:00
so Zachias was a tax farmer. He's very wealthy, and he does this.
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He's Jewish because his name lets us know he's one of them. He's
25:08
a trader to his people. He's an outcast from the synagogue, outcast from
25:11
the temple. And Jesus has come into town. Everybody wants to see Jesus.
25:15
Everywhere he goes, there's a crowd. I don't mean a crowd like
25:18
their light up on the street. I mean like this kind of crowd everywhere.
25:21
You know, there's there's no way to escape, there's no SUVs,
25:23
there's no tricked out at motorcade, there's just donkeys, and you know they
25:27
walk about as fast as people. So anyway, everybody's crowd around Jesus.
25:30
Zacchius knows he's coming to Jericho, gets ahead of the crowd, climbs up
25:34
in a tree. What kind of tree? Sycamore tree the front. You
25:38
guys got this, okay? I bet you could sing the song anyway.
25:41
Climbs up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And
25:45
as the Savior passed away, he looked up in the tree and said,
25:47
zach he is you, come down, I'm going to your house today,
25:49
Going to your house today. Anyway, it's a song I don't sing much
25:53
during my sermons till April. She couldn't do that anymore. Anyway, some
25:57
of you are here for that. So so Jesus is passing the ways,
26:00
Zacchius is the tree, stops, looks up. Remember this, He says,
26:03
Zachius, he knows his name. Come down, I'm going to your
26:07
house today. What everybody in the crowd is like his house? Going to
26:11
your house today? Now this is interesting. Think about it. If somebody
26:14
famous, if you met him somewhere and they're like, held like to come
26:17
to your house today, you have two emotions. Great, and what's going
26:21
on at my house today? And what does my house look like today,
26:23
and Zachius has got an extra one. He's like, what's he gonna do
26:26
when he sees the size of my house and my estate? And Jesus goes
26:32
home with Zachias and they spend the day together. And when he's finished,
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this is so powerful. When he's finished spending literal, physical time with Jesus,
26:44
he comes out and makes an announcement to the people here and now here
26:48
and now, I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if
26:52
I've cheated anybody, they're like, if that's how you got all this stuff?
26:57
I mean, the whole thing's up here amid scheme. You know,
27:00
you take a little, you pass on a little. I mean, what
27:02
do you mean? If if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I'm
27:04
gonna pay him back. Let's see pay them by? How much? Should
27:07
I pay back the losses? Two times? Four times as much? See?
27:12
Be careful how close you get to Jesus. You start doing stuff like
27:17
this, you become a better person. You remember how Jesus responded. Here's
27:25
how Jesus responded. You remember this. Jesus answered and said, unto Zacius,
27:27
no, my friend, that's not necessary. God forgave you for cheating
27:33
all those people. You're good to go. That's how I was raised.
27:37
As long as me and God are clear, it really doesn't matter how well
27:40
I treat other people God forgave me. It doesn't matter if I confess to
27:42
them or make restitution. No, when Zakias said, when Zakius said,
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Jesus smiled because what was Zacchius doing. Zacchius was saying, you know what,
27:52
I can't control how the people I've mistreated respond to me. I don't
27:56
blame them if they hate me the rest of their life. But I'm going
28:00
to do what I can do, and I'm going to do my best to
28:03
make restitution and take baby steps perhaps toward reconciliation. I'm going to treat well
28:12
the people I have mistreated and leave the response to them. And Jesus said
28:17
to him, Look how powerful this is. And Jesus said to him,
28:19
today's salvation has come to this house because of what zacchi has believed. Uh
28:27
uh. Because of what Zachias did. He obeyed the command of his savior.
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He became a reconciler. If you accept the invitation to follow Jesus,
28:42
you're going to own up to things you're going to fix things. You're gonna
28:45
come clean, you're gonna apologize, you're going to pay back, and you're
28:48
gonna make restitution. And you're not going to fall for this crazy Christianity that's
28:51
not real. This says, as long as me and God are okay,
28:52
it doesn't matter how I treat other people. Jesus does not leave that option
28:56
open to us. The reconcilers initiate. The reconciled are the reconcilers. That
29:07
is the way, That is the way of Jesus. Now moving on past
29:12
Jesus, the next generation understood this. Paul. Paul comes onto the scene
29:17
of history, steps on the pages of history as a pharisee and a good
29:19
pharisee, a law abiding pharisee. He said, I was like the best
29:22
pharisee anybody ever heard of. Very humble guys, Like when it comes to
29:26
keeping the law, nobody keeps it better than me. The apostle. Paul
29:30
steps onto the pages of history as a pharisee, and his mindset, his
29:33
worldview is this, do unto me. I'm going to do unto you.
29:37
Do unto others as they do unto you. He grew up in the eye
29:41
for an eye way of thinking. And then, in pardon the play on
29:45
words, he met the Way on the way to arrest members of the Way,
29:52
and then became a follower and leader of the Way. Goodn't resist that
29:56
the apostle Paul is literally on his way to arrest. It's in the Book
29:59
of Actual This is this terminology to arrest members of the Way. Jesus appears
30:06
to him, the resurrected Christ, and the apostle Paul does an about face
30:10
and embraces Jesus as the Way and becomes a leader in the church. And
30:15
we're still reading his letters to the first century church. And here's what he
30:19
wrote to the church in Ephesus. He says, be kind and compassionate to
30:26
one another, forgiving each other, to which somebody who you know, they
30:30
just read these letters to the crowd. He didn't know all these people,
30:33
and he's been there some time ago, but now he's written them a letter,
30:36
and somebody in the crowd's going, who wha? What what do mean
30:37
forgive each other? Paul? You don't even know my story. You've never
30:41
met my dad, you never met my ex, you never met my father
30:45
in law. What do you mean forgive you. Hey, before you can
30:48
just tell me to give me this blanket command to forgive, you need to
30:51
hear my sad story, to which Paul would say, no, I don't
30:53
because I'm not asking you to forgive based on the worthiness of the person.
30:56
I'm asking that you need to forgive. Here's why I say forgiven. Here's
31:02
why I can write you a letter without hearing your story and with confidence say
31:04
you need to forgive. I want you to forgive just as Christ, Just
31:08
as in Christ, God forgive you, just as This is why we forgive,
31:15
not because the anybody deserves it, because we didn't deserve it either,
31:21
just as in Christ, God forgave you. There it is again you do
31:26
unto others as God through Christ is done for you. This is the way
31:29
of Jesus. Then he writes in another letter to the Christians living in Colossity.
31:32
He says this. He says, bear with each other and forgive one
31:34
another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, initiate forgive as
31:42
the Lord forgive you. Why do we forgive because we're forgiven? Why do
31:48
we reconcile because we've been reconciled. And then this next one. This is
31:52
to the church in Corinth. He writes, this, this is so powerful.
31:56
In fact, if you think you've done so many bad things, you
32:00
are beyond the grace of God. This is amazing. This is written by
32:04
somebody who had people Christians arrested and put to death and tortured. Okay,
32:07
not a good guy. Listen to what he writes, because he experienced this.
32:12
He says, God, here's our word. Was reconciling the Galileans and
32:19
the Judi. God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ. This is
32:25
an all skate. This is good news of great joy for all people.
32:29
He said. God took it upon himself through Christ, to do all the
32:31
work to reconcile the world to himself. Look at this phrase, not counting
32:38
people's sins against them. This is why it's called good news, because regardless
32:46
of what you've done, your heavenly Father has already moved every obstacle. All
32:54
you need to do is accept that gift. He's not your sins against you.
33:01
And but in addition to he says, now that's my way. Now
33:10
I want you to stop counting other people's sins against them, because you are
33:20
the message bearer. Look at this next phrase. Because you have been committed,
33:23
you have been given the message of reconciliation. In other words, if
33:30
you as a Christian, if I'm taking advantage of the fact that God has
33:34
reconciled me and He's given me the message of reconciliation, who are we to
33:38
think that we're supposed to quote share our faith or want other people to become
33:42
Christians when we lead with a box of beliefs rather than a life that says
33:46
I'm an initiator of reconciliation, even with the people who've hurt me the most
33:52
and have no desire to reconcile back. The drawbridge is down, the welcome
33:57
that is out, whether they reciprocate or not, because that's what my heavenly
34:00
Father did for me, the reconciled, or to be the reconcile ers.
34:07
Now, stepping back from first century culture, let me just ask this question,
34:10
is is this really that big a deal? Yes, here's how big
34:15
a deal it is. What is the number one complaint right now about our
34:21
nation? We're so yeah, some of you said it, we're so divided,
34:27
And what is the antidote for division? It's not agreement? You don't
34:30
have to agree with someone to reconcile a relationship with someone. The antidote,
34:36
the solution isn'tn agreement, it's it's reconciliation. Just to thought, if the
34:44
Christians in our country, because there's so many of us, are so many
34:46
people who claim to be Christians, if the Christians in our country adopted this
34:51
posture, and this isn't extra credit, this is central to what it means
34:54
to follow Jesus. Right, if the Christians in our nation adopted this posture,
35:00
we could fix that. If we decided, if we decided collectively we're
35:07
not going to listen to and we're not going to celebrate the dividers, things
35:13
would change. Now, in my original notes, I had if we decided
35:17
not to celebrate or listen to or vote for the dividers, things would change.
35:22
But I knew if I said vote for we would be divided. So
35:24
I decided to take that out. So ONTI just go back. If we
35:28
would just listen, if we would refuse to listen to and celebrate the dividers,
35:31
things would change. Let me ask you in a different way, what
35:34
is the world. I mean, think about what's going on in the world
35:36
right now? What does the world need more than anything, It needs reconciliation,
35:40
the very thing God did for who the whole world. I mean,
35:45
think about it this way. The great leaders, the people we celebrate generationally,
35:49
generation after generation, from every nation, from all over the world,
35:52
men and women. Were they dividers or were they the great reckons? See?
36:00
This isn't complicated, But it's really difficult. It's not complicated, and
36:06
it's really hard. And some of you are listening today and I know what
36:08
you're thinking, and I get it. I'll be thinking the same thing.
36:09
You're like, Andy, you need to hear my story first. I understand
36:14
that. And I would never stand up here and make these blanket statements if
36:15
Jesus hadn't. But it's just it's not complicated. It's just it's just hard
36:23
because I'm a divider by nature, and most of you are dividers by nature
36:31
because you're sinners. And sin always divides. The very first sin divided human
36:37
race from the human race from God. The very first sin divided the first
36:42
man from the first woman. Sin always divides. Selfishness divide selfishness. Selfishness
36:49
says I want my what comes is coming to me, and I want a
36:51
little bit of what's coming to you too, because I think it's actually coming
36:53
to me. And if I don't get what's coming to me, then I
36:55
can't have anything to do with you. And we're divided. Fear divides,
36:59
pride divine. But if the spirit of God lives in you, if the
37:05
spirit of God lives in me, sin is not the boss of me.
37:09
My Savior is. So initiate, be the first to apologize, whether they
37:19
deserve it or not. You didn't deserve it, but be quick to forgive.
37:23
Don't sit on it. Don't have those imaginary conversations where you come out
37:28
looking good and they look awful. And my imaginary conversations there's always a crowd
37:30
and I have one great one liner and drop the mic and walk off and
37:34
everybody's like, ooh, Andy's amazing. You know the guy's a loser.
37:37
You know that's just me. I know you never do that. You never
37:39
have imaginary conversations. And one of those imaginary conversations do They do nothing but
37:44
rob you of energy. And your Savior, who love you, says,
37:46
I don't want you to live this way. You were not created to live
37:50
that way. You will ride from the inside out how many examples do you
37:53
need to see of that to make that call you've been putting off. You
38:00
got two weeks basically, right, write that note you've been putting off.
38:05
Refuse, come on, refuse to return evil for evil. Do what Jesus
38:09
did and return good for evil again. I'm gonna put words in Jesus' mouth
38:16
for a second. Maybe if he were here preaching this sermon, he would
38:20
end it like this. He might say, so, if you're on your
38:28
way to the Christmas Eve celebration at church and suddenly you remember that your brother
38:38
or sister has something against you, and it may be your fault, it
38:43
may be their fault. It is probably everybody's fault. Perhaps he would say
38:47
to us, first, first, before you come celebrate what I've done for
38:54
you, and before singing to me about how much you love me, how
39:00
about you prove it by keeping my commandment. Go be first, Go and
39:08
be reconciled to them. Then go celebrate my birthday. So inconvenient, no
39:19
guaranteed outcome. In some cases, it's risky because you're kind of putting yourself
39:23
out there. Maybe you've tried before, but the cross was inconvenient, and
39:31
when Jesus died for your sin. There was no guarantee you would respond.
39:36
But he left heaven and he came to dwell on earth as one of us.
39:44
Anyway, the way of Jesus is the way of reconciliation, the reconciled.
39:54
We're called and we're commanded to be the reconcilers. And if we we
40:00
love him, we will. If we love him, we'll try. If
40:07
we love him, we'll begin removing even the smallest obstacles between us and that
40:14
other person, because our heavenly Father removed all the obstacles between himself and us.
40:22
And that's why we celebrate the birth of our Savior and our King.
40:29
And we will pick it up right there next time as we conclude our series
40:34
The Way and a major