Jamie Winship | The Secret to a Connected Life

Proverbs 8 interestingly says that wisdom is the first thing that God created before anything else. That's Proverbs chapter 8. Like he created wisdom before the earth, before the before Genesis 1. And that it's that wisdom that we have to really search out because there's wisdom from above as we're talking about and then there's the wisdom from below. And simply the way you know the difference is wisdom from above connects and wisdom from below separates. That's how you know. I that's pretty straightforward.

So, so what I want to talk about this morning is as we think about wisdom, if wisdom from above connects everything, that's what it does. It connects all things because God connects all things and is connected to all things. And God has created in Christ. All things are created in him, by him, and for him. And he holds all things together. So in that scenario, if that's the case in our reality, that means there's really no such thing as separation. It's not that separation is detrimental, which it is. It's that there's no such thing as separation. Think about that. Because we we believe that there is. Let me just adjust this here. Hold on a second. Thank you very much. This is what you can do when you're back home.

So wisdom wisdom from above connects. So that so then that so then what we want to talk about this morning is the how you see the world. What's the lens through which you see the world? So when you're looking at politics and you're looking at the mystery of the church and everything that we're I mean like in our world today, it's it's just crazy. It's crazy. And we're starting to say we're starting to accept as normal things that should never be accepted at all. And now we're just going to say, well, this is just part of life. It's not part of it's it's part of death. That's what it's a part of. And God is not about death. God is about life. And and and we are ambassadors of reconciliation. We're not we're not proponents of separation. Like that's not what we're here for. It's all about connection. And so what's so important then is is well then when I look at anything in the world, any situation, how I read the Bible, how I receive any kind of information, what's the lens through which I'm seeing it? Not what do I see, what's the lens through which I see what I'm looking at because it affects everything. Donna Donna was at the eye doctor yesterday and she got contacts and she texted me um from the the eye doctor and said, "Uh, I can see now." I You know why she did that? Cuz because she could see her phone. That's why she did that. And and I said, "What can you see?" And she said, "I can see everything." And why? Becau not because she changed her perspective on what she can see. No, because she's looking through a new lens. And the lens is what makes it all clear. So we want to what's the And most people never even think about what's the lens to which I see the world. We just think that what we see is the reality. And so wisdom is this. So wisdom from above informs us about the lens through which we see the world. Right.

And so and then yeah, it was so interesting. So of course when you think about wisdom, we we know James says, "If any man lacks wisdom, what's the secret to wisdom?" What is it? Ask. That one word, ask. Ask. So if we don't have wisdom, doesn't mean we lack wisdom. If we don't have wisdom, it's because we don't ask. But then James says if you lack wisdom ask because God gives it to really religious people. No. God gives it to a certain kind of political belief. No. God gives it generously to whoever asks. However, when you ask, don't waver. Don't do this. Lord, give me wisdom about this so I can determine whether I agree or disagree with what you just said. give me wisdom about this so I can decide whether or not I'm going to do what you just said. Then he's like, "Don't ask. I'm not I don't play that game. Don't ask." So the way to pray about it, wisdom that in our experience is to pray like this. Lord, we're getting ready to ask you for wisdom about a certain situation. And um when you give that wisdom, which you will do, when you give it, give us the courage to do what you've just made known to us. and invited us into because we're pretty sure because we've read the Bible that what you're going to say is not only going to be beyond what we would come up with, it's going to scare us to death. That's pretty much what the Bible is all about. God's going to invite you into something that is so far beyond what you would come up with in a million years that most people back away from it pretty quick. Do you know why? because we can't control it. That's why because we can't control it. So that makes that makes it hard to ask. If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask. Any person lacks wisdom, let him ask.

So So when we ask about worldview, what's the le God? What is the lens through which we should see the world? What's the lens? And then we go to the scriptures to what's the lens through which they see the world. If we asked Jesus, what's your world view? Imagine that. Jesus, what's your worldview? What would he say? Would he say it's biblical? He wouldn't say he would never say something like it's biblical. The Bible's not done yet. Jesus, what's your worldview? Like he wouldn't say that. That's our worldview. Biblical. What does that mean? Biblical according to whose view of the Bible are you biblical? Biblical to my view of the Bible and I want everyone else to have the same biblical view I do. That's called control. But if you ask Jesus, well, what's your worldview? What would he say? If you ask Moses, what's your worldview? What would he say? If you asked any of them in the scriptures, what would they say their worldview is? They wouldn't they wouldn't name a political party. They wouldn't name a religious position. They wouldn't say that.

So, but the beauty of when we we read the scriptures is Moses who is the author we believe of Genesis is actually starting the whole the for what we have as the Bible. He's starting that story, the creation story with worldview. That's what he's beginning with world view. Why? because he's talking to Israelites who can't even remember where they came from. They've been in bondage for so long. They don't even really know their own history anymore. And so the worldview that they've grown up in is the same worldview that Egypt believes in at the time. And what Egypt's worldview is is a worldview of separation because Egypt believes in empire. Empire is from the separation worldview. But the message of the Bible is not welcome. Here comes the empire of God. It's the kingdom of God. And so what you see really ear right in Genesis and on all the way through into Jesus and on into Revelation is kingdom versus empire or kingdom connection empire separation. Kingdom love forgiveness. Love forgiveness. Love joy. Peace. Empire power control. fear. So when you hear a person say one sentence, you're like empire, empire, empire, empire. It doesn't matter what group they say they're from. Empire, empire, empire, empire. Oh, it's all empire. It doesn't matter which country is talking. Empire, empire. They're all speaking empire. They're all speaking separation. All. And the goal in empire is to control everything to the way I want it. Right? And how do I do it? Using power. Putting myself in a position of as much power as I can so I can control everything. And as soon as that starts to happen, you must separate from what's true and what's real. And other people in empire are dehumanized immediately because if they don't join your empire, they're not human anymore. And we we need to get rid of these people. Kingdom. Come on. Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Love the other. Kingdom.

So, so Moses is out there in the wilderness with the Israelites. And imagine the Israelites are out there in this completely new worldview. They've come from hundreds of years of separation. So the separation worldview, you don't have to remember all this, don't worry. Separation worldview believes wholeheartedly and completely in scarcity. That's what it believes in. The scarcity component of separation is there's not enough. There's not enough. There's not enough. Not enough of what? There's not enough of anything. There's not enough time. There's not enough money. There's definitely not enough land. Wow. There's definitely not enough land cuz we're going to go take it because we need more land and we don't want you on our land. There's not enough land. There's not enough love. There's not enough people that vote like me. There's not enough of anything. And what's crazy is if you could if you want to see a group of a room in a group unify don't talk about love, talk about scarcity and they'll all agree. It doesn't matter if they're communist, socialist, capitalist, all agree there's not enough in the world. What are we going to do about it? We're going to go get it. We're going to go take it. So that's scarcity. But in a scarcity model, the problem is ultimately you're not enough either. you're not enough. And how young do our kids know they're not enough? That they got to compare themselves to everyone else because they're not enough. And they got to treat try and be like that. Why? Because I'm not I'm what? You think I'm enough by myself? No way. Not in this empire world. It's all about competition, comparison, measurement, constant measurement. even with God. Even God's measuring us all the time and we're not we're not matching up and it causes us to separate from God. We are with this we were with we've been with two companies in the last week and both companies said to us we got to get rid of silos in our company. It doesn't matter if the company has 100,000 employees or 20. They have silos. Do you know why they have silos? Because they're an empire. And empires create silos because the people inside the empire are afraid to tell the truth because they're in constant comparison and competition with everyone else around them. So they just want to keep quiet. I don't want to report. I don't want to connect because then I'll look stupid or bad or we didn't accomplish the goal or we didn't sell enough and we're not enough and we're going to lose our job. And it's power and it's fear and it's control and it's separation. And there can be no connection in an empire separation worldview. So scarcity, not enough. There's not enough. You're not enough. I'm not enough. Nobody's enough. There's not enough of anything.

So in a scarcity world, you have to search for certainty. You have to like figure out, okay, well, if okay, so I'm not enough and there's not enough. So how do I get my peace? How do I get how do I protect myself and my own where I don't have to be afraid of all this all the time? I've got to find certainty. H how am I certain that God's not mad at me? What words do I have to say? What actions do I have to do to get this God to like me, to love me? Because if I don't do anything, he's not going to like me. I got to get it. I have to earn it. But but like the scriptures, the the scriptures, anytime the scriptures talks about wages for something, something you've earned, this is what it says. The wages, do you know this verse? the wages of sin, which is the word separation or to descend into non-being. The wages, what you've earned in your separation mentality, worldview is death. So, here's what you can earn in the reality that we're in. You can earn death. You can. And we work hard to kill each other. We work hard at it. Same verse. But the gift which you can't earn, you can only receive. But the gift of God is the wages of separation is death. The gift of God is life. How do you get the gift of God? Receive. So if you want to work for something, you're in trouble. But if you want to receive something, you are right on with the universe because that's kingdom. That's empire versus kingdom. Separation worldview is built on scarcity and the constant search for certainty. And so imagine you're the Israelites and even though you've been in bondage, even though it's the worst life you you can't even imagine how bad it is, it's better than mystery. At least we knew that we were going to get beaten every day. Out here in the wilderness, we have no idea what God's doing. We Where's Moses? We haven't seen him in a month. Where's our leadership? What's the plan? Come on. What's the plan? I need A, B, C, D. I need to know what this thing is going to do. I need to work and I need to have some kind of control over this. What are we doing out here? We don't even know if food's going to come tomorrow. Has it come the last 20 days? Yes. But we don't know about tomorrow. And we need to know about tomorrow and the next day and the next day and forever. We need to know. We need to plan. We need to get it all squared away so that we don't have to worry about it anymore. We need certainty. We don't want to live with this mysterious free God. This mysterious God that like what is he? Where is he? What does he do? What does he want? Let's go back into slavery. At least we knew the routine. At least we knew what was going to happen tomorrow. There. I mean, there's an amazing book written by Eric from in the 70s called Escape from Freedom. That humans are terrified of actual freedom. that no matter what, we'll keep putting ourselves back into a position of bondage and slavery because we've just got to know what's going to happen. We can't stand not knowing and being in some kind of charge of what's going on. So, if we could just put the right people in power that we picked and put in power, then we would know. Then we could control this thing. But the thing is, you can't do it. And it just creates all kinds of anxiety in us every day. Yeah.

Separation is built on scarcity and and a search for certainty. And because you have to be certain, that means you have to be perfect. Like you better get it right because there's not enough opportunity in the world and there's not enough jobs. There's not enough. And so if you miss the opportunity, you missed it. You missed it. And what's God doing? He's like, "You you missed the God's up there going, you missed the opportunity. Nothing I can do about it. I had one opportunity for you and you missed it. There's nothing I can do. And we're all running around. Oh no. Oh no. That's why we need to put leadership above us in place of God. And the f the sadducees and the Pharisees said it when when Pilate said, "Is this your king?" And they said, "No, we have no king but Caesar." Do you know how many Americans say that every day? Is God your king? No. Kind of. This is our king. This is who will save us. This person. When when they said that we have no king but Caesar, it was like, oh my gosh, you have gone into the greatest lie possible. That you think that system is going to save you? Wow. How far gone are you? Perfection. You can't fail. We can't fail. We're not allowed to fail. Failure is losing. Failure is an identity. We can't have that. Separation is built on scarcity and certainty and perfectionism. And because of all that self-focus, it all ends up in I've just got to look for myself first. I've got to take care of myself first because nobody else is going to do it. And I got to take care of my own. And my neighborhoods, we got to take care of our own. And our cities got to take care of our own. And our country's got to take care of our own. It's me, me, self first. First, why? Cuz there's not enough for everybody. I'm sorry. I wish there was. I like to say I love people. I don't because there's scarcity. And I'll love you as long as I have enough and I'm in control. But once that's gone, you're gone. COVID, the great reminder of how quickly we will separate, hoard toilet paper that has nothing to do with the problem. Nothing. It didn't matter. That's how fearful we are. We don't know what's true or false. We're just running cuz somebody said you got to have toilet paper. And so we actually ran over our neighbors to get the toilet paper ahead of them. And then we separate into waring parties over what are we going to do about this? Not was like you you're going to try that, we're going to try this. It's like what? You're trying that. You're the enemy. You're trying to destroy my life. You're going to kill me. Every side's saying the other side's going to kill them. And we're all still here saying each other's going to kill each other. Like it's just this is the separation worldview in action. And and I mean I'm not kidding. Whether you're a Christian or not, we just jump right in it. We're right in it. What's the wisdom in this? Where's the wisdom in this? It creates war. That's what it creates. There is no shalom in a separation worldview. There is none. There can be none. There never will be. And then we come up with a statement like, well, this is just a part of life now. Slaughter is a part of life now and we're just going to have to accept it. Wow. Really? Is that what you get when you read the Bible? It is. Be it is if your lens is the separation lens. I can prove all of that in the Bible that I can kill anyone I want. I can prove it from the Bible. I can. First of all, I take Jesus and just tell him to go stand over there because we don't need to hear from him. Because he won't let me talk like that. But I'll just stand him over there until I need salvation. Call him in, get saved, go stand back over there. We'll run this thing the way we want to. And when the rapture is ready, let me know so I can get out of here and you can kill all the rest of these people. That's what we come up with reading the Bible in a separation worldview. Unfortunately or fortunately, that's not what it says. And Moses in Genesis one is going to tell you that is a lie. All of that's not true. How do we know it's not true? Because you've lived under Egypt for 400 years and that's what they think is true. And that's what every empire that's ever existed believes in is scarcity, separation, certainty, perfectionism, and we're number one, and we're the best and we're better than everybody else and the other rest of you can go to hell. That's what empires say and do. And when we hear empire language, we ought to fall down on our face and ask God to cleanse us from that thinking.

But what what's the other worldview then? What's the other worldview? The other worldview, the right world view, that world's view is false. It's just every part of it is false. There's no such thing as scarcity. There's no such thing as certainty in anything in any. There's no people like there's certainty in death. We don't we have no idea what death really is. If we did, we would never be afraid of it. We are so terrified of death because we're certain of what it is. It's loss. It's lost. You lose. You lose. If you die, you've lost. If someone in your family dies, it's cuz you just lost. Is that what the Bible says? God, please don't let us die. Please don't let us die. It's the worst possible thing that can happen. And Jesus is standing there in the resurrected going, "Actually, it's not." They're like, "Jesus, could you go stand over there? We're not ready for the rapture yet. go stand over there. Please don't let me die. I got to protect my life above all else. And Jesus is like, I said if you seek to save your own life, you will lose it. Can you just stay over there for a second? You if you seek to save your own life, you're going to lose it. Why? Because now you're in the separation scarcity worldview. Moses is saying, "No, that's no, no, no, no. It's not like that. Everything you've experienced in Egypt that I experienced in my own journey in Egypt and 40 years in the wilderness believing in the separation worldview. Then I met Jesus, the incarnate one, the burning bush. And my worldview changed into what? Connection. Connection. Connection. Connection. Connection. And And you know what? There's no such thing as scarcity. What there is is enough. There's enough of everything for everyone to have enough. In scarcity, we hoarded. And it becomes true that it's scarce. But it didn't exist until we started believing in scarcity. Then scarcity exists. But when we think there's enough and live like there's enough, there's enough. That's why God says with mana, you're not taking more than for today because you will. And one of you will figure out, wow, I can take this more than everyone else and make them pay me to get it. Here comes the empire. And then I can get people and make them go collect it for me because I control it now. Empire. And Jesus like, "We're not doing that." God's like, "We're not doing that. We're not doing that. We're we're going to look at the the world the way the world really is." And the example for Moses is Adam and Eve in the garden where there's enough of everything for everyone to have enough all the time. Never separate. That was his only warning. Don't separate. Don't separate. Stay connected. Don't separate from me. Don't separate from yourself. Don't separate from each other. And don't separate from the planet. Stay connected. The whole thing's connected. If one part separates, the whole part dies. Did you hear that? If one part separates, the whole thing dies. That's truth. That's the reality that we're in. Fight separation with everything that you have. Stay connected. Stay connected. There's enough. It's not about scarcity. And it's not about certainty. Life is a mystery. The whole thing is a mystery. But mysteries are awesome because mysteries you can figure out parts of it. You discover part of the me. This is everything about humanity. We discover. I mean, imagine Adam and Eve walking around the garden and God's like, "What are you going to call that? What are you going to call that? Name that. What's that called?" And they're naming these things in the Hebrew. If you ever read the Hebrew of the names are hilarious. I mean, they're real. The pelican in Hebrew, the word for pelican in Hebrew is the is the flying one that vomits. That's what that one flies and vomits. Boom. There it is. It's like God's like, "What do you call that?" "The flying one that vomits." Like, "No, the other one higher than that." The one that sheds and soarses. Eagle. The one that sheds and soarses. Eagle. Yeah. What do you call that? Eagle. Okay. Here's what I want you to do, Adam. I want I want you to figure out everything you can about the eagle. It's it's biology and an amul. But then I want you to figure out how is it flying around like that. And I want you to fly like that. And then what do you call that up there? The spinning shining sphere. Yeah. That that I want you to figure out once you can fly like an eagle. I want you to figure out how to fly to that. And when you get there, figure out what it's made out of and what else there is beyond it. But you know why? Because humans can do that. We're co-creators with God. This is the mi and and it's the joy and it's a mystery. And it's God's like, "Let's go get in the mystery because you're going to love this thing. is going to blow your mind. But don't start believing in separation because it'll never work. And then instead of inventing something to get there, you'll invent something to kill them. And you have the same genius to get there that you do to kill them. Don't waste it on killing them. Because if you kill them, you kill yourself. And you have no shalom. And this is all about shalom. But you could do that. And it's a mystery. Like we'll tell us the steps. No, you learn them. I'll be with you, but you discover. This is the joy of the creator. Learn, come with me. What if we fail? You will fail. Uh so, so there's enough and it's about mystery. And to discover and resolve mystery to get in the next mystery, you must fail. Failure is what? Good. Yes. Yes. Failure is learning. Failure is learning. Failure is not sin. Sin is failure. But failure is not sin. And you will fail, my friend. You will fail. But it's okay. If Eve is running through the Garden of Eden before she eats of the tree, if she's running through the Garden of Eden and she falls down, what happened? Did she fail? Did she sin? Who knocked her down? Or did she just fall down because she's learning about running? And you got to pay attention when you run. Oh, and when you fall down, what do you do? Do you give up on running for the rest of your life? No, you get up and run differently. That's what failure is. Failure is when something you thought would happen didn't happen the way you thought. How often does that happen? All the time. So failure is learning. So there's enough and the whole thing's a mystery. Grace is a mystery. Forgiveness is a mystery. People are a mystery. God is a mystery. The church is a mystery. All of it's a mystery. Who says? God says it's all a mystery. There's no certainty in here. And failure is learning. So what does that mean? If there's enough and life's a mystery and I know I'm going to fail, but I'm going to get back up and I'm not going to separate when I fail. I'm not going to look for certainty. I'm going to get back up and I'm going to do it again and I'm going to try it again and we're going to get there. If that's all true, then it means that I must need other people with me to do it, right? Because you'll never do it by yourself. So that means at all costs, no matter what, we have to stay connected. Yes. Because if you separate, it'll fall apart. So when we lived in Indonesia, there was this tribe that lived at the top of a hill, a mountain, and the river was right there. And they dumped all of their trash in the river. And the river god took it away and dumped it on all the people at the bottom of the hill who one day said, "Let's go up and kill these guys because their God keeps dumping all his trash on us." But like, so but when you tell the people at the top of the hill like, "You can't do that. It affects people down at the bottom of the hill." Like there we did we don't we don't care about the people at the bottom of the hill. Like we care about our people. We don't care about those people down there. Yeah, but you're connected to them whether you like it or not. And what you do here affects what's there. This is the law of the universe. You move an electron here, you move electron over there. It's called quantum entanglement. Nothing in the universe is separate. Nothing. There is no empty space in the reality that we live in. It's all connected. Everything you do affects everything. So to live separate is a lie. To look for certainty is false. To think for about perfection is a lie. To be self-focused is to destroy yourself. To be connected is true. Everything's connected. Enough is true. I mean if you want to see the statistics on food, time, all these things. I've been researching this a long time. There's enough of everything for everyone to have enough. There is no question about no doubt about that. It's scarcity that keeps us from sharing it. That's what happens. And failure is learning. Then I can be other focused and I can be self-emping and I can have unconditional love even for my enemies. And that's the goal. Does that make sense?

So, I'm thinking about these young people that Logan is talking about. And I think about I think about Jesus inviting the disciples. Well, let me say one more thing about the Garden of Eden that I'm thinking about. So, Eve fails. The word sin is never used in the creation story. Never used the word sin. Not there. It's not used until Cain and Abel. So when you read that story, don't put stuff in there that's a scarcity separation worldview that's not there. Be careful. She does fail. She definitely fails. And it's not until the book of Romans that anything about separation is is attached to Adam. So there's we just have to be careful how we read these things because we're reading them in a separation world view and we see separation everywhere. But if you read in the connected worldview, oh my gosh, is that story beautiful. Be here's why. Here's how connected it is. So this is Moses telling the story, remember? I'm going to try and get here. So Eve fails. She eats of the tree. She already knows right from wrong. She already has that in her mind because she knows not to eat of the tree. She has a capacity of understanding right from wrong. She gets that. It's already there. The danger of eating of the tree is that she be she makes herself a judge of what is good and evil. That's very different than knowing right from wrong. Now she puts herself in a position that only God has to determine good from evil. That's what she does when she eats of the fruit. And and God tells the humans, if you put yourself in that position of judge of good and evil in the world, you will die. So she eats and she becomes a judge of good and evil like God. And who is the first person she judges? Herself. The first person she judges is herself. And when she looks at herself as the judge of good and bad, right and wrong, what does she judge herself? She's ashamed of herself. Can you this beautiful human that God has created that's completely open to everything that God has for her has no need to hide and cover herself. She is completely the truth of who she is. She accesses the knowledge to judge between what's good and evil. She looks in the mirror, so to speak, and says, "Well, that's one thing I don't like, and I'm ashamed of who I am." And then she invites Adam into the same judgment and he begins the condemnation. So they move right into condemning themselves immediately. Who condemns you? Jesus will ask this question. Who condemns you? I don't. So they So now we hate ourselves. We're ashamed of ourselves. Who who told you to be ashamed of yourself? Did God say you ought to be ashamed of? He didn't. Who said that? You said that. You said that. And so they cover themselves and they separate from God. Did God separate from them? Nowhere does God separate from them. When they separate from him, he comes and finds them and brings them back into connection. Why? Because he never disconnects. And he's like, "Who told you this? Who said this about you? I didn't. Who's telling you to be ashamed? Who's saying cover yourselves? Who's saying hide from me? I didn't. The liar did. Right? Oh, now you're in the separation worldview. And this is what Moses is trying to tell the Israelites before they go in and start up a new nation. He's saying, "We can't start another empire. We can't start another empire. It's what destroys the world. We have to start a kingdom that reflects the kingdom of God, not an empire." And Deuteronomy and Leviticus are all the the Levitical religious laws. And Deuteronomy is all the economic political policies of how to set up a country that influences the world without being an empire. A country that influences the whole world without being an empire. To show that the whole world can be influenced without using power and control to do it, but love and forgiveness instead. And wow, that's hard to believe.

So when God goes to Adam and Eve and he has the conversation with them, what's crazy about the connected worldview and the whole story is that Revelation says and Peter says that before the foundations of the earth, Christ died for the world. Do you hear that? Before the foundations of the earth, the lamb was slain for the world. When did he die? He died in eternity. So when Eve makes this mistake, failure, whatever you want to call it, and they're suffering the consequences of it, God says, "Let me tell you the plan for this thing." There's no plan B. The plan is already underway. No matter what you guys do, the plan is underway. And no matter what happens, I will reconcile this whole thing. No matter how bad you guys fail and screw up and get mad and believe lies, I will reconi I will reconcile the whole thing. And if you read it like that, it's like Eve's like, "Oh, wow." And then and then Adam's just blaming God. Why did you do that? Because you gave me that woman. You It's your fault, God. You gave me that woman. It's your fault. How far can you separate your blaming God for this? But then when God comes to Adam and Eve, he says, "Guess what? You know what? Sorry. The plan's already underway. And this has all been taken care of. It's all been taken care of beyond how what you'll ever understand." Because what you're going to see worked out in history has already been worked out in eternity. You know why? Because you're in eternity now. It doesn't come when you die. You're in it now. It's the most astounding understanding of the connected worldview. You're already connected to the whole eternal plan. Whether you believe it or not, you're still connected. This is the good news. This death, this reconciliation, this redemption done by God in all of eternity, you will experience it in history on this day, but it's already been done. I mean, it's like, and the more you get into like quantum time and all that, the more it's like, wow, actually, h so we it's like God had a plan. Eve and Adam screwed it up. God's got like, "Oh, now I got to send my son." Like, "You guys messed it up. Now I got to send my son because I'm mad and you dropped the ball and there's a chasm." Incorrect. You failed. I've taken care of your failure before you ever failed. Why? Because I am the God who reconciles all things all the time. Not after you make a mistake. I've been reconciling the whole thing beyond before the beginning of it all.

The beauty of that story, the beauty of that creation account that's so powerful is then Jesus comes along and he's with these young guys, this youth group that he's starting and they're most of them are under 18 except Peter. And so they're young. They're young and he's inviting them to follow him. Now here's the here's their question and this is our question. And I think when God invites you to follow him or you're going to well, he invites you to follow and you have this idea. Oh my gosh, I was praying. I have this idea. I feel like God's inviting me into this thing at work or wherever you are. Wherever you are. And then you're then a human question is, is it going to be worth it? Is it going to be worth it? Listen to this question. Is it going to be worth it? Those two words mean nothing. it. It's a neuter pronoun means is it what? Is what going to be worth what? This is how empire thinks. Well, what I mean is if I have to do all this work and effort, is the return on the investment going to be worth it to me? Is it going to be worth it? Is that the right question? Is that the is that the right question? So Jesus invites these young guys into it and he says, "Follow me and I will make you to become." Notice who's doing it. I will make you to become fishers of men. He's connecting to them and he's telling them if you come with me in this invitation, you're already enough. You're already enough. And well, how how's it going to work out? Oh, I could never even begin to explain to you how this thing's going to go. I can't even begin to It's a mystery, but you're going to love it. But it's going to tax every part of who you are in your humanity because I'm inviting you into the fullness of who I am as a human for you to be the fullness of who I am in a human. And you're going to come into me and I'm going to come into you and you're going to become like me because I have become like you. Astounding invitation. You're going to be enough. Are we going to fail? Yes. A lot. What happens? I've already taken care of it. Just don't disconnect from me. Don't drop out. Stay with me. And as you're walking along, you will become so connected to me and to these other people and to the world that you will realize that to separate from any part of it is death for all of it. So you will be so other focused, so self-empting, so unconditional love even for your enemy that even death won't scare you. Come on, let's go. That's the invitation. Is it worth it? Probably not. Are you worthy? Yes. Is he worthy? Yes. Is it worth it? Doesn't mean anything. So, I think Jesus is inviting into Listen to this quote. Here we go. I'm going to try and get to this. I'm going to make it. Jesus. He isn't going in place of us into anything. He's not going in our place. That's how we think of it. He's like a substitute for us. He's going in He's dying in my place. He's going in my place. He's not doing that. He isn't going in place of us. He's going to make a place for us. He's going ahead of us so we can come behind him in a new way. Jesus doesn't die instead of us. He dies ahead of us. Why? because he's changing death. And he wants us to come into death the way he goes into death, not the way the world goes into death. Do you see that? He's the pioneer for us in all things, death, prayer, obedience. He's ahead of us in all things human. He defeats the enemy in the wilderness so we can defeat the enemy in the wilderness. He's not going in your place. He's going so that we can follow him in suffering in everything in a new way in the way he would do it which is the most exciting thing but everything in everything.

So when you're reading through the book of Luke and and and we're God, what's the wisdom of how what's the lens through which to see this whole thing? And you're reading through the book of Luke and the birth of Jesus. When Jesus comes in contact with an experience, the experience doesn't change him. He changes the experience. He changes the reality. When Jesus goes down in the water of the Jordan, the water of the Jordan doesn't purify him. He purifies the water. He's the pioneer. He's the one making the way. When he touches the leper, the leper doesn't affect him. He affects the leper. He's showing us how to go into the world where the world doesn't always affect us and we're a victim of it. We impact and affect the world. That's what he's doing. He's saying, "Follow me and I will make you into that kind of person. Come with me in all levels of it." And so, you start reading the book of Luke and you're watching him do it. And in Jesus's life, in the gospels that we read, Jesus asked, some guy counted it in a really good book. He asked 307 questions in the course of the gospels. 307 questions he asked. Humans, humans asked Jesus 186 questions. He asked you and me 307 questions. We asked him 186. Why? If you're with Jesus and he's asking you 307 questions, you're only going to ask 186 back. And of the 186 that was asked of him, he only answers three. Isn't that wild? There was a big debate like he he answered more than three. Well, how many? Eight. Eight was the big counter number. Three or eight? He doesn't answer a lot of questions. Of 186 questions, he answers three. Why? What does that mean about the questions? The questions are about empire. He doesn't answer empire questions. He answers kingdom questions. How do I put myself in control? How do I how how do I be certain that everything I do is going to work? Wrong question. How do I God make my team win? How do we make my team win? God, how do I make this country go the way I want it to go? He doesn't answer those questions because those are self-focused, save my own life, save my own team questions. That's not what he talks about. He asked three Here's here's some of the questions he asked. Did you see that woman right there? That's a question he would ask. You see that woman right there? You guys didn't even see her. You walked right by her. Did you not see her? Do you know why you didn't see her? Because you don't think she's human. That's why. She's from the wrong group. So you just walk right by her like she's unimportant. You didn't see her. That's the kind of question. Here's the question he asked. Do you want to get well? Do you want to get well? Those are question. Why do you doubt there? These are his questions to us. What What are you afraid of? Those are his questions. Here's the three he answers. Question number one that he answers. Are you a king? He answers that one straight out. It is as you say. Are you a king? Yes. Question number two that he answers, what is the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God, who is love. Love the Lord your God who is love with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And in that love, love your neighbor in the same way that you love yourself. Love, love, love. That is the greatest commandment of the king. Is he a king? Yes. What's the greatest commandment of that king? Love, love, love God. love with all of your and everything you do participate in love of God and yourself and your neighbor. That's the rule by the king in the kingdom. Question number two. Question number three, how do we pray? How do we how do we communicate with the king who demands love for all? How do we pray? Oh, this is how you pray. You pray like this. That king is actually a father. It's the father, the one who is in heaven. This is Luke 11. How do we pray? Luke 11. It's a very short. It's not like Matthew. It's short. The father, the one who is in heaven, who is holy and separate. Derek said this this morning in the meeting before the service. Holy. When you're when you're in the holiness of God, you are filled with hope. You are filled with hope and joy and worship because the whole thing is so incredible and amazing. It's like mindboggling how stunning it all is. Holy is the Lord. He's so different and separate from this craziness that we're in. He's not this. He's this. And you just worship him. Like, it's incredible. Look, you look in the mirror and you look at yourself and you go, "Oh my gosh, look what you did when you made me. It's astounding." And you're so I I didn't know you put this capacity in me to do the things that I'm doing because I'm with you. I didn't know I could do that. And Jesus like, I know that's why I invited you to follow me. If you separate from me, you will never know who you really are because you'll just look for power and control and certainty in a little small world, afraid of everybody else. Come with me and let's get rid of all that. Connect with me. Are you a king? Yes. Well, what do I have to do to follow you? Love. Love me and everyone that we come in contact with. What about bad people? Yes. How do I talk to you? Talk to me like this, Father. The one who's above it all, that one, the Holy One, the the the the one that's connected to all things and holds all things together and reconciles. Even when we fail, you're ahead of the failure. You're eternally ahead of my failure. Yes, I can work all things together for good. Even when you are totally whacked out, um I'm ahead of you. I'm before you. I'm behind my

head of the whole thing. It's not falling apart. Don't separate from me. That father that's in heaven. Holy is your name. Give us today the bread for tomorrow.

And when he's when when he says ask me for bread, when Jesus talks about bread, he's not talking about bread. He is the bread of life. Give us this day the bread for tomorrow. What everything that bread means to God, the bread of life, all of it. Bread that you don't know anything about that bread. Give us that every day into tomorrow and activate in us the reality that we are already forgiven. That's what the Greek says. Activate in me the truth that I am already forgiven. In order that I will activate the reality of the forgiveness that I extend towards other people. That's what he says. And Lord, please don't let me fall into performance-based separation scarcity worldview. But deliver me from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom, not the empire. And yours is the glory, not the empire. And yours is the power and not the empire forever and ever. Amen.

Those are the three questions he answers. What other questions do you have? What other questions the mechanics and all that ask for wisdom? Ask in Luke. So you're walking through Luke and that's what Luke 11. That's Luke 11. In Luke nine, Jesus decides to show Peter, James, and John what he looks at at the highest point of his humanity. What does he look like? And he walks them into the what we call the transfiguration up to the transfiguration. And they're up there, Peter, James, and John. And and Jesus is saying, "I want to show you the height of who I am as a human in human form. I want to show you the height." And you know, and then he glows his his uncreated self shines forth within his humanity. Shines forth like that, you know, and they're they're horrified and amazed and all that. And then Luke says Elijah and Moses are there with him and they're talking to him about his departure. H So, we don't know how they know it's Moses and Elijah, but they must have said enough that they're like, "That's Moses and Elijah. I doubt if he's standing there with the stones." I mean, that sounds goofy and theatric. I think he's just standing there and they're talking but they're talking about Exodus which is well that's why it's Moses because they're talking about Exodus and departure. But why Elijah? Why why those two together? Well, not Abraham and David or Moses and Elijah and there's lots of they're the law and the prophets and all that stuff. But what are they talking about? Jesus's exit from this life. Why are those two talking about that? And and I think this is what it is because Moses failed. He failed. Like when you read the account of Moses, like what's he supposed to do? You're supposed to take these people, you lead them into the promised land. He didn't make it and the generation didn't make it. So what happened? Did you know that? And and and and it says in Exodus it says, it says that Moses, the people are saying, "Why did you bring us here to die?" And Mo and Moses inquires of old and he told him to speak to a rock and to pour forth water. But Moses spoke and acted in anger, striking the rock instead of speaking to it. And because of that offense, he's not allowed to go in the land. So, there's a lot in that and a lot of stuff we could talk about. The point is though, Moses exodus from the situation he's in. Looks like a failure as far as he's concerned as far as people like that guy didn't make it and neither did the whole generation make it and Elijah his job his role according to Micah has turned the hearts the hearts of the fathers and sons back to God again that was his job or his goal he gets up on the mountain you know they have the prophets of Baal the whole thing happens he comes back and it didn't work it didn't work and he's so depressed he says to God kill me it didn't That's the end of him. And then and then he's taken into heaven and Elijah comes in and takes. So you're talking there's two guys talking to Jesus. Both of whom if you looked at what they were invited into from a human standard, they failed. Except they didn't. And they're standing there and talking to Jesus. Why? Because the way he's going to go out is going to look like a failure. That's what it's going to look like. And if you disconnected and separated, it would be except Moses and Elijah are still connected to the one who's going to make everything they did really happen on a far greater scale than they could ever imagine. Will we come into the land, the land far greater than what Moses ever thought? And who does it? Jesus. Who makes what Moses was called into happen? Jesus does. Follow me and I will make you to become. And who makes the hearts of the sons and the fathers return back to God? Jesus does it. Not Elijah. Jesus does it. But connected to Jesus, which they have been for all eternity. It wasn't over when they thought it was over. It was still going. And as they pass into understanding eternity, Moses and Elijah both worship the one who finished the task that they were called into. Amen. Amen.

And those disciples are so overwhelmed at that they fall asleep. And that's the hype that no matter how it looks like it's going because it's Jesus leading and if you stay connected to him, you it's not a win-lose scenario. It's a win-win scenario. Don't separate. Don't separate. Don't separate. Stay. Run the race, walk all the way into eternity and watch what Jesus is doing in you since before the foundations of the earth. It is so hopeful. I don't know how else to think about anything that Jesus is inviting me into. And then in Luke 22, they get to see Jesus at the depth of who he is in Gethsemane. And here's his prayer. Not my will, thy will be done. Connected. Not my will, thy will be done. Because Jesus knows whatever happens as the cross is not the end. It's not the end. It's going into something greater than he even he and his humanity can imagine. Is it worth it? When God invites you into something, is it worth it? No. But you are worthy. You are worthy. It doesn't matter. We try and take these invitations, these these ideas and cram them into our little reality. And what God's doing is inviting you up into his. And when you go up into his, stop trying to jam what he's doing down in our little definitions and boxes. He's inviting you up to the mount of transfiguration and down into the depth of your deepest suffering. Both lead to glory. Is it worth it? No. Are you worthy? Yes. Why? Because he is worthy and he makes you worthy and the whole thing is worthy. Don't disconnect. Stay with him. Wisdom from above. Father, thank you for these people. Thank you so much. Lord, we bless you this this morning that we wouldn't separate, that we would stay connected no matter what. Stay connected because you're calling us into things that only you can do greater than what we can see. Not for us to control and have power over, but to surrender into you, to release into you because you are able to walk us into eternity that we're already in because you are king and because the greatest commandment is to just love you and love others and love ourselves. And the prayer is, Our Father who is in heaven, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth just like it is in heaven. Hallelujah. Amen.