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Sunday Sermon: Bat Shit Crazy Ramblings · The Reading Instruction Show

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  I'm Andy Johnson. Welcome to the Church of Biblical
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  Sanity. Topic of today's Sunday sermon is Bat
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  Shit Crazy Rambling. An introduction about lamps
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  and light. First, if your spiritual path brings
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  you to a place where you're better able to nurture
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  yourself, others, and your community, I honor
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  your path. And if Christianity is the vehicle
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  that moves you closer to that place of universal
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  love and nurturing, I have nothing but respect.
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  And if your path is different, if it's Buddhism,
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  Islam, Judaism, first -person's tradition, I
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  honor that as well. Psalms 119, 105, your word
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  is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
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  Biblical scripture is said to be the living word
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  of God. And if your path brings you to a place
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  where you harm yourself, your community, or others,
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  your spiritual path has some weeds and thorns.
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  If sown your seed among a rocky path, your path
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  has become dark. Your word is a lamp to my feet.
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  So let me provide a little Bible -based light
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  to your spiritual path. It's not right to beat,
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  bully, and kill. It's not right to take oil from
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  another country. It's not right to destroy the
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  planet we all live on. It's not right to take
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  Greenland because we need it. It's not right
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  to protect wealthy white men who raped young
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  women and were part of sex trafficking. It's
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  not right to falsely accuse your enemies because
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  you want revenge. And it's not right to deny
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  food and healthcare to so many when you have
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  so much. Part two, bat shit crazy. On my Facebook,
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  one of my Bible -believing, Jesus -loving conservative
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  Christian friends commented on an earlier talk.
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  They said, quote, do you really think that this
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  batshit crazy rambling will sway anyone to the
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  right side of all of this? Unquote. And it's
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  a very good question. I'm not trying to sway
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  anybody. I'm not trying to convince anybody of
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  anything. I realize Jesus could come back and
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  right across the sky and mile -high letters stop
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  abusing ICE. Stop using ICE to abuse and intimidate.
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  and some still wouldn't change their views on
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  things. Some would still insist it's part of
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  God's plan, to which they are privy. And that's
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  just the way of things. Now in Genesis, we're
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  told that we are made in the likeness of God.
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  Each of us has a bit of the likeness within us.
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  And I'm hoping my bat -shit crazy rambling will
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  touch some of the likeness tucked deep down inside
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  of some people. And perhaps the likeness will
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  start to talk. But I have no illusions or expectations.
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  The likeness calls us to do what we can. And
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  I'll go to marches and other events. I'll give
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  money to feed the hungry immigrants trapped in
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  their houses. And I'll do my Sunday sermons until
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  people get sick of me. I give it another week
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  or two because that's something I can do. Listen
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  to the likeness. The likeness calls us to do
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  what we can. And what ice is doing is evil and
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  wrong. There aren't two sides to this. The likeness
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  compels us to speak out against evil. Part three,
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  new wine and old wineskin. If you believe the
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  Bible to be the word of God, then the word becomes
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  a living document. Hebrews 412, for the word
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  of God is alive, and active, sharper than any
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  double -edged sword, it penetrates. Even to divide
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  in soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges
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  thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Alive and
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  active. To be alive is to grow and to change.
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  To be active is to cause change. So as a living
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  document, the word grows and changes. It says
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  different things to us at different points in
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  our lives versus take on new meanings, deeper
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  meanings. The living word speaks to the likeness
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  and the likeness speaks to us and we grow and
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  change if we're alive. In the book of Ephesians,
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  St. Paul tells us that we've been made alive
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  with Christ. And nothing that's alive stays the
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  same. To stay the same is to wither and die.
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  Which brings us to our verse of the day, Luke
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  5, 37 to 39. And no one puts new wine into old
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  wineskins. or else the new wine will burst the
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  wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will
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  be ruined. But new wine must be put into new
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  wineskins, and both are preserved. And Noah,
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  having drunk old wine, immediately desires new,
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  for he says, the old is better. You cannot put
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  new wine in an old wineskin. The wineskin is
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  our belief system. It's our way of seeing things.
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  You cannot grow and change. You cannot learn
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  new things and you cannot have new experiences
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  and go back to your old ways of thinking and
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  believing. You cannot put new wine in an old
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  wineskin. The wineskin will burst. Now when I
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  left Grantsburg, Wisconsin some 50 years ago,
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  I hadn't actually read the Bible. I believed
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  what people said in it. I had to believe other
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  people. My wineskin was pretty small. Couldn't
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  hold a lot. So 50 years ago, I started studying
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  biblical scripture. I read the Bible. I read
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  things about the Bible. I read things about other
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  religions. I had conversations and new experiences,
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  met new people, listened, reflected, and learned.
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  And many of these new things could not be contained
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  by my old wineskin. So I had options. Option
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  one would be to reject the experience, which
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  would be to discount all that I learned or say
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  it's evil or of the devil or some such thing.
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  Option two was to reject the wineskin, which
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  would be to reject my belief system. And option
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  three was to get a new wineskin, a bigger wineskin,
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  one that expands to accommodate all the new wine.
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  Now, many of my Bible -believing, Jesus -loving,
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  conservative Christian friends are faced with
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  similar options. New information that they're
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  seeing doesn't fit within their wineskin. Their
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  wineskins have become data resistant. They're
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  reading a dead Bible, not a living Bible. At
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  the direction of our president, they're seeing
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  good Americans do horrible things to our immigrant
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  neighbors. and this doesn't fit within their
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  wineskin. Now, they can't reject their wineskin,
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  so they discount the data. It's fake news. It's
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  half the story, they say. My Bible -believing,
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  Jesus -loving, conservative Christian friends,
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  pray to God to help them, to bless them, to protect
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  them, to do this and that. And they're so busy
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  telling God what to do, who to bless, who to
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  protect, that they don't listen. They can't hear
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  the likeness above all the prayer and praising.
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  And I imagine sometimes God wants to say, would
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  you just shut up and listen? Those sitting in
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  detention centers are hiding with their children
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  in basements. They're praying to God. We have
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  the likeness within us. Why aren't we helping
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  and protecting? The last part, rethink. And no
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  one having drunk old wine immediately desires
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  new, for he says the old is better. It's hard
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  to change the way you think about things. Is
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  my bat shit crazy rambling going to sway anybody?
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  Absolutely not. Paul had to be struck blind before
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  he became Saul. Saul had to be struck blind before
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  he became Paul. And very few of us have a road
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  to Damascus experience. But after seeing Renee
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  Goode and Alex Pretti murdered in cold blood,
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  I can't put that new wine back in an old wine
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  skin. I view the world a little differently.
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  I didn't think that sort of thing could happen
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  in our country. And after I see my conservative,
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  Jesus -loving, Bible -believing Christian friends
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  say nothing, I think of their religious path
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  a little differently. I'm not going to sway anybody,
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  but perhaps The likeness will speak. There are
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  travelers on the road, people, who've been beaten,
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  robbed, and left on the side of the road. Why
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  are you walking by? Stop the abuse. Stop ICE.