WEBVTT 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:19.000 It may be a little, I mean, it's the Arsenal. It may be a little different. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:26.000 Easter message than you're used to. So buckle up. Here we go. The Gospel in color. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:36.000 Let me get a feel for things real quick. Raise your hand if you grew up in some form like Christianity, 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:42.000 church, Catholic. Some people are like, Catholic, that's not, it is Christian. All right, cool. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:53.000 So a lot of us, a lot of us. Did anyone ever hear the phrase that Christianity is a relationship? 00:00:53.000 --> 00:01:01.000 It is not a religion. Have you guys heard this before? Yeah. Do we believe that? 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:08.000 That you guys weren't as confident. That's what I learned my whole life. I was told my whole life 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:13.000 that Christianity is a relationship. It's not a religion. And I do think that's true. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:21.000 It's also a world religion. So like there's some differences there, but I do believe this is a relationship. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:33.000 But because of that, there are moments where I step back and I wonder if that is true, if it really is about relationship, 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:43.000 then what would happen if we looked at our faith through the lens of a relationship? 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:58.000 What would happen if we looked at a relationship with the Creator God through the lens of relationship and not just some religion? 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:16.000 Not just theology, not just belief, but we have this like soft science, the science called psychology that helps us look at how we, they call it soft science. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:26.000 We have this science called psychology that helps us actually look at what happens in relationships and how we handle ourselves, 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:37.000 who we are as people and how do we interact in psychology speaks to how healthy relationships happen, what happens in a healthy relationship, 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:42.000 what doesn't happen in a healthy relationship or what happens in an unhealthy relationship. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:51.000 All of these things we have learned, not just through coming up with ideas, but through studying relationships. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:03:01.000 And yes, I get that the relationship with a Creator might be different, but if we're going to call it a relationship, then we got to look at it as one. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:11.000 And so there are parts of the relationship for me that when I started looking at what I was told about God, what I was told about myself and how we interact God and I, 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:25.000 it just didn't feel like a healthy relationship, right? Like, I don't know that it was real healthy for both of us. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:35.000 So, we're going to look at some of that. You guys know, a lot of you that have been here for a little bit know that over this past year I dove, 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:44.000 I mean, I've always studied in red psychology, but this past year I dove into it in a way where at 44 years old, 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:59.000 I enrolled back in college and I'm going to school for psychology. I think, in fact, I have a picture of me. 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:08.000 Mottie made me take a picture. This was like, almost a year ago, I'm a future Yara called it Yagwire. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:17.000 She said, "Dad, you're going to be a Yagwire." I said, "I am." So I'm studying psychology at Texas A&M San Antonio. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:29.000 Woo-hoo, shout out. And I'm the old guy in the class, right? Like, usually, you guys know this. Usually I wear a hat. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:38.000 Right now, you guys are looking at me like, "Oh, he is old." I do not go to my class bald because I'm already the old guy. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:45.000 And they're going to look at me and be like, "Oh, this guy's real." I was talking to one of my professors this last week and 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:56.000 I was like, "Oh, we're at this event." A couple of masters students had just defended their thesis and so we were all eating some snacks and they were all going to go eat. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:01.000 And they were like, "Hey, you're going to go eat with us?" I was like, "I can't. I'm going to go pick up my daughter." She's at gymnastics. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:09.000 And my professor looked at me and she was like, "In your kid, like 21?" I was like, "That's my oldest son." 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:23.000 She's like, "How many kids do you have?" I said, "Four. What? You're four kids?" "Yeah." "Yeah, I'm old. I'm older than you, doctor." 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:28.000 Literally, I think I'm a decade older than her. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:35.000 She told me not too long ago she was like, "Hey, we're talking about my future. I want to do a PhD in psychological research." 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:40.000 And she was like, "I think out of a lot of the students, you're really well prepared to go to a PhD program." 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:48.000 And I was like, "Well, I'm twice these kids age." She was like, "No, you're not. Literally." 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:54.000 And I told, "I'm 44." She was like, "Oh." I was like, "Well, you don't have to react like that." 00:05:54.000 --> 00:06:04.000 But yeah, so anyway, so I'm back in school studying psychology because I think if we're going to look at our relationship with God as a relationship, 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:13.000 then I think we can find some really good insights into what relationship speaks to on how we can have a relationship with God. 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:27.000 And it's because if we look at this story of humanity with God through that relational lens, what will we see? 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:41.000 Every relationship has patterns. There's trust or mistrust. There's closeness or there's distance. There's safety or fear. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:50.000 And if we brought that lens to the story of our faith, we might start noticing something that we've missed, I think. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:07:01.000 I'll give you kind of an example of relationship. So I'm not a cat guy. I've said that my whole life, my entire life. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:12.000 I've got two dogs, not a cat guy, but I'm not a terrible human. So I can care about animals even if they're not a dog. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:22.000 And a while back, this cat broke into our house. And by broken, I mean, Mottie opened the door and let it in. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:36.000 And she told me that she was just going to get the cat fixed so that it wasn't out on the streets just having babies. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:44.000 And then we would keep the cat for a couple of days while recovered from the surgery, and then the cat would eventually go outside. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:54.000 I think it was like over a year ago, and I have not seen the cat go outside yet. She's still in recovery. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:08:07.000 We call her cat. Really we do. Last name is Baloo, so we call her Cat Baloo. And if you're over a certain age, you know what that is. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:22.000 Two of us, the two of us didn't know, yeah. So, Mottie knew I wasn't super excited about this, but in a relationship, sometimes you just have to do what your wife tells you. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:35.000 And there was one day early into my relationship with this cat. Mottie was gone for the day and I was downstairs. 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:42.000 The cat had kind of mosey downstairs. Usually she stays upstairs. She'd come down and I sneezed. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:52.000 She goes, "I have old man sneezes now." So it was just like, "Achoo!" And the cat was like, "Boom!" Like so fast. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:09:01.000 And she went one direction, like back door, and then she went back, and then she went upstairs, and I was like, "That was crazy." 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:08.000 She's really fast. She has this thing where she'll run and just jump off of our door, like parkour. 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:16.000 I sneezed. The cat took off. I had no idea where she went. I lost the cat. We were there. I had no idea. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:21.000 So I'm like, "Alright, let me go find the cat. Make sure I didn't kill it." Or it didn't get out somewhere. 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:28.000 And so I went looking. And I looked everywhere. I looked under the beds. I looked in each room in the house, the bathrooms. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:34.000 She has a bad habit. My dog's never did this, but she likes to go into our bathroom and turn our faucets on. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:39.000 To a point one time, she didn't turn on all the way, actually, twice now. All the way, it just kind of dripped. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:46.000 And it flooded my living room. The cat. She's amazing. 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:51.000 But she disappeared. I didn't know. I looked everywhere for her. 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:57.000 And, like I said, I've had dogs my whole life. She had fully disappeared. I'm in trouble. 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:08.000 Mottie is going to kill me. So, I'm looking one last time through our room. I walk into our closet and I'm looking underneath. 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:14.000 Like, our clothes are hanging. I'm looking underneath to see where she's at. And I hear something above me. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:23.000 And I look up. And in our closet, it's ten foot ceilings. And there's something on top of my shoe boxes that are almost to the ceiling. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:29.000 And I look up and there's these eyes just like looking at me. Big eyes just staring at me. 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:34.000 My dogs don't get up there. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:45.000 And I looked up and it was like she's like, "I'm not coming down there with you. I don't know you. I don't trust you. 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:49.000 Which fair. I don't know that I trust her." 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:54.000 But she wasn't hiding. I don't think she was hiding because she was in trouble for doing something wrong. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:11:02.000 I think maybe she had a guilty conscience. But really, she was hiding because she didn't trust me. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:08.000 She's like, "I don't know you. I don't trust you. I don't know who you are. You make weird noises." 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:27.000 And I'm still not sure that she trusts me. But there's this thing in relationships where if you don't really know someone or another character, 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:37.000 then you don't trust them. That's where me and the cat are right now. I fear for my life when I go to sleep. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:42.000 But also, I think I'm her favorite human. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:47.000 Monty said it's so annoying. Can't help it. 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:52.000 Don't get me a shirt ever. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:12:01.000 And to be clear, this is not one of those sermons where I'm going to ask, "So what are you hiding from God?" 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:06.000 I'm not trying to spiritually corner anyone today. I don't want to create any more trauma. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:09.000 I think there's something really human here, even though it's a cat. 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:18.000 Because there's moments for us, and we all know these moments where maybe we do something and we're not sure how people are going to respond. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:25.000 Maybe we mess up. Maybe you say the wrong thing. Maybe no one even knows what you did, but you know. 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:32.000 And before anything is said, something in you moves. There's a response. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:38.000 Not toward honesty, not toward connection, but toward hiding. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:41.000 You manage what people can see. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:48.000 And it's strange because sometimes no one has even threatened you in that moment, but your body already knows the script. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:55.000 If I'm fully seen here, I may not be safe. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:10.000 And maybe that's the fear kind of underneath it all, that this idea that if I share my struggles, that if they know, then I'm going to be rejected. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:26.000 We expect distance, but there's something in us that aches for nearness, and I think a lot of us have brought this same kind of script into our relationship with God. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:39.000 Not because we're rebellious, some of you are, but because somewhere along the line, we became unsure of what God is like, especially when we fail. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:46.000 And the reality is, for most of us, it's not because it's the way that we met God on our own. 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:55.000 We were told about God, who God is, what God expects, how God responds. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:14:03.000 And for a lot of us, the explanation of the character of God was, for me, was pretty confusing. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:14.000 He's all loving, but also just God, who expects a lot, or a distant God that is watching every move just waiting on us to mess up and say, "Yep, I knew it, they're all the same." 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:17.000 They can't do anything right. 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:24.000 But he loves you, he's kind, kind of loves you, but he does because of Jesus. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:40.000 And for some of us, an angry God that's matted us for something our oldest brother, Adam did, but we've got another perfect brother that is going to appease Father, the angry Father, to protect us. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:48.000 But it is God, but it's the Son, but anybody else ever get confused? 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:56.000 And I probably shouldn't say this on Easter as a pastor, but he could get real confusing. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:08.000 So Easter weekend then becomes about guilt for a bad behavior by this one man, Adam, which we then inherit his bad ideas and bad nature, and we can also, we don't do anything perfect. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:23.000 And then Jesus comes as God, the angry Father with the nicer version, who's going to fix what Adam did by being perfect, and they take the punishment for all of us because we deserve it. 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:37.000 That Sunday school lesson that we all learned at like seven years old, that you're dirty, rotten, sinner, you deserve death, but if you accept Jesus into your heart, then God will forget it ever happened. 00:15:37.000 --> 00:16:06.000 In theological circles, this is called, it's an atonement theory, it's this idea of penal substitutionary atonement that what most of us were taught at Easter, that we deserved penalty for our sins, and Jesus came to be perfect, and he's going to be the substitute for us, substitutionary, and he's going to atone for the sins that we committed. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:19.000 And he's going to take the wrath of God, who's loving, but also just take that wrath so that we don't have to, God's going to pour out his wrath on him to keep it from us. 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:36.000 Then after that, we can, we'll be good. But if this is all a relationship, then it really sounds like a pretty dysfunctional one to me. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:49.000 And I know that's probably not safe to say with everybody, but God doesn't sound like a very safe individual to be in a relationship with, especially if you ever mess up. 00:16:49.000 --> 00:17:03.000 And like I said, penal substitutionary atonement, it's what most of us were taught, it's about a 500 year old theology or theory, so it's not even the oldest theory about what happened at the cross with Jesus, so I'm not going to go into all that, but look it up. 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:18.000 So, as I was told, if this is a relationship, then we have to look at this from a more relational lens this Easter. 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:39.000 What if Easter's not about answering guilt? What if it's answering this question? How did humans become so afraid of God that hiding started to feel natural? 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:54.000 We have to go all the way back, back to the beginning of the relationship, the honeymoon phase in the garden, where we look at this relationship and there's some, like, a very specific thing that happens. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:18:05.000 There's a problem that enters the relationship in Genesis 3. This relationship between God and humans, Adam is our representative and his wife, Eve, they are representing us. 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:14.000 And in the garden, this happens. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:20.000 He said to the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?" 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:34.000 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die." 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:47.000 You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman, "For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:57.000 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:06.000 She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were open and they realized they were naked. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:11.000 So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:28.000 Now, this is a relationship. This part of the story, the focal point, is not about disobedience. This is about distrust. 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:40.000 From a psychological perspective, that matters because when mistrust enters, it doesn't just change behavior, it changes perception. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:48.000 When trust is broken in a relationship, you stop interpreting the other person through safety and you start interpreting them through suspicion. 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:53.000 Suddenly, everything gets filtered differently in the relationship. 00:19:53.000 --> 00:20:01.000 This is what's happening in the garden. The serpent doesn't begin by making Eve defiant. He begins by making God suspect. 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:10.000 Did God really say? Who gets to tell you what God is like? Do you really know God? 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:16.000 Because now the serpent becomes the interpreter of that relationship. He says, you will not certainly die. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:24.000 For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:31.000 The serpent says, maybe God's withholding something from you. Maybe you can't trust God. 00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:36.000 Maybe you need to take for yourself. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:42.000 Maybe God's not the most trustworthy person in your relationship, Eve. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:49.000 And once that shift happens, everything else begins to follow. 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:59.000 Because when perception bends, when you see someone differently than emotion follows, God no longer feels safe in this relationship. 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:04.000 They feel exposed. Others feel like threats. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:09.000 And it leads to something very specific. Shame. 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:17.000 Not I did something bad, but there's something about me that is not safe to be seen. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:21.000 Psychologists have studied this emotion of shame. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:26.000 When shame takes over, people don't move toward connection. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:35.000 They move toward hiding, blame, self-preservation, self-protection. 00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:41.000 So in this story, then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord. 00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:46.000 Right after Eve has eaten this, she gave the fruit to Adam. They both eat. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:52.000 When the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord, he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:55.000 and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:02.000 But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid." 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:05.000 Shame says hide. 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.000 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:12.000 Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:17.000 The man said, "The woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:23.000 Because shame says to blame. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:27.000 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:31.000 The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:35.000 Because shame says to self-protect. 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:42.000 Because in a relationship that feels unsafe, you don't move toward repair, you move toward protection. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:47.000 And this is what Adam and Eve did. They no longer trusted God. 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:52.000 Their God image, the idea of what the character of God was like was no longer trustworthy. 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:55.000 So they must protect. 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:58.000 They can't say, "Hey, we messed up." 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:02.000 And trust that God's love will be forgiving. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:05.000 We'll be caring. We'll help repair a relationship. 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:10.000 No, no, no. They must hide. They must blame. They must self-protect. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:19.000 So I'd argue that the problem from the garden wasn't even really the misbehavior or the disobedience. 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:25.000 The deepest problem we see here in Genesis 3 from a relational perspective is mistrust. 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.000 In this framework, humans stop receiving God. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:33.000 They stop receiving themselves, and they stop receiving the world through trust. 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:37.000 And they begin interpreting everything through suspicion. 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:40.000 And that immediately distorts their perception. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.000 God is no longer felt as safe and generous, but as threatening and withholding. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:48.000 The self feels exposed. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:53.000 So I must sew fig leaves together to hide. 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:59.000 What I believe is shameful about me, to you in a relationship. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:04.000 And then other people start to look like rivals, judges, dangerous. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.000 In this moment, God did not change. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:12.000 Humanity's perception of God changed in that moment. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:15.000 And once perception bends, emotion follows. 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:17.000 The result is shame and fear. 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:21.000 Shame is not just, "I did something bad. It's this painful sense that I myself am unsafe. 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:23.000 I'm exposed. I'm not enough." 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:25.000 And when shame takes over, people do what Genesis describes. 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.000 They hide, they protect, they blame, and they grasp. 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:36.000 And when I have to hide, I put on a mask to present what I perceive as the safest version of myself. 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:41.000 My friend, author, Pastor John Lynch, says that when I wear a mask throughout my day, 00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:45.000 the only thing that received love that day was the mask. 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:48.000 Not the real me. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:55.000 And when love is present, even in that relationship, it can't reach you if you're hidden. 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:57.000 And here's the reality of the relationship. 00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:05.000 No matter how much love I have for you, I can only love you to the level that you trust me. 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.000 So if we don't trust God, we don't trust the character of God, 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:15.000 then no matter how much God loves us, pursues us, if you look through the Scriptures, 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.000 God is pursuing us constantly. 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:23.000 We turn our back. God comes, "Hey, hey, I'm here. I'm here. I love you. I care for you." 00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:27.000 The Israelites mess up. They do the same thing. God pursues them constantly 00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:31.000 over and over and over again, even to the point where 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:36.000 He comes in the form of Jesus. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:42.000 Because after the trust is fractured in the relationship, the love doesn't stop. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:46.000 But it stops being experienced. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:52.000 So if we go from the garden with humanity's new perception of the character of God, 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:56.000 what happens inside of people doesn't stay inside of people. It scales. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:59.000 And so you go from the garden, fearful people build fearful systems. 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:04.000 Belonging becomes conditional. Holiness becomes distance. Religion becomes gatekeeping. 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:09.000 And exclusion becomes powerful because it hurts. 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:13.000 We know that if you look at studies that social rejection activates, 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:16.000 a lot of the same regions of the brain is physical pain. 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:19.000 So to be excluded doesn't just 00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:25.000 define community. It controls it. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:30.000 Because nobody wants to be excluded because that hurts. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:35.000 So if I can tell you that you must do these things in order to belong, 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:42.000 so you won't be excluded, well you don't want to be excluded because that's painful. 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:46.000 And this is the world that Jesus walks into. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:49.000 You see it through His ministry. 00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:54.000 There's one of my favorite stories at the table. Jesus is sitting with tax collectors and sinners. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:59.000 And the religious leaders are watching. Because in that culture, 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:05.000 the table decides belonging. And Jesus is disrupting this. 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.000 In Matthew 9, it says later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew's house 00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:14.000 with His close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:18.000 When the Pharisees saw Him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:25.000 and lit into Jesus followers. What kind of example is this from your teacher acting cozy with crooks and riffraff? 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.000 Jesus overhearing shot back. Who needs a doctor? The healthy or the sick? 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:33.000 Go figure out what the Scripture means. He quotes Hosea 6-6 here. 00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:37.000 I'm after mercy, not religion. 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:42.000 I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:45.000 He's pushing back in a system that's built on exclusion 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:51.000 and revealing a God who moves toward the outsider. 00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:55.000 And this insider outsider, this is relational language. 00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.000 It's social psychology. It's in-group, out-group. It's mentality 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:04.000 that human tendency is to sort people 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:09.000 into and in and out. Us and them. 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:13.000 We usually give more trust, empathy, loyalty to our own group 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:17.000 while viewing outsiders with more suspicion, distance, stereotyping. 00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:21.000 In social psychology, sociology, this helps explain how identity, 00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:25.000 belonging, prejudice, cohesion, and conflict can form so quickly. 00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.000 Because I got to trust my group, but 00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:33.000 there's someone else that's an out-group. I have to exclude. And I don't want to be part of that. 00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:37.000 What Jesus is doing here is he's shifting people out of this fear-shaped world 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:41.000 into something else. Because the relationship with God 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:45.000 will always dictate our relationship with others. 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.000 If I can't fix this relationship, I say this, 00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:53.000 but if I can't fix this relationship with God, 00:28:53.000 --> 00:28:57.000 if I feel like I'm untrustworthy, I'm shameful, that I have to prove something 00:28:57.000 --> 00:29:01.000 that I can never show myself to anybody else. 00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:05.000 The way that I see God 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.000 will always dictate the way that I see reality. 00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:13.000 So shame and fear, they push people 00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:17.000 to seek safety, belonging, protection. 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:21.000 So they cling more tightly to their own group that often turns differences 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:25.000 into threat, making outsiders easier to distrust, 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.000 stereotype, blame, or exclude. We see this everywhere. And what Jesus is doing here 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:33.000 is he's shifting people out of this fear-shaped world into something else 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:37.000 into a world of belonging, mercy, compassion, into this emotion of 00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:41.000 awe that we keep talking about. It's the difference of experiencing something 00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:45.000 that is greater than you and feeling that small self, but in a way 00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.000 that says I'm so connected to everything around me. 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:53.000 This is beautiful. It opens us 00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:57.000 back up. It reduces the defensiveness. 00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:01.000 It increases connection. And that's what Jesus is doing here. 00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:05.000 He makes love believable again. 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.000 He was here to fix the misperception 00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:13.000 of God, to show us exactly what God actually looks like 00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:17.000 and how God loves. He tells Philip exactly these words. He says, 00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:21.000 "You've been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don't understand 00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:25.000 to see me is to see the Father." 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.000 Jesus is the lens through which we see the character of God. 00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:33.000 So every time he's trying to fix 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:37.000 our perception of God, Jesus consistently pursues 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:41.000 everyone in his life that have been told that they do not belong 00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:45.000 over and over and over again. He shows us who God really is. 00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.000 This was relational repair 00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:53.000 that Jesus came to do, not just fix behavior, 00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:57.000 but to repair the most important relationship that we could have 00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:01.000 with God, who is love. 00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:05.000 And that kind of love, it becomes dangerous. 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.000 Because it threatens everything built on fear 00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:13.000 in society. Eventually, this is 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:17.000 what leads to the cross for him. 00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:21.000 We have to look at like the cross 00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:25.000 is not just this religious symbol. It is a psychological revelation. 00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.000 It shows us what fear shaped humanity 00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:33.000 does when it's exposed to pure love. 00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:37.000 Because when love can't be controlled, then fear escalates. 00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:41.000 And when fear escalates, 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:45.000 it looks for someone to carry this fear. 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.000 Who can I blame, remove, sacrifice? 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:53.000 Because it's easier to unite against one person than to face what's broken 00:31:53.000 --> 00:31:57.000 inside all of us. The Caiaphas, the high priest 00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:01.000 at the time of Jesus, he says it. And John 11, he says, then one of them, 00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:05.000 named Caiaphas, who is the high priest that year spoke up, you know nothing at all. 00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.000 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:13.000 die for the people than that the whole nation perish. 00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:17.000 This is scapegoating. 00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:21.000 It's fear stabilizing itself, trying to protect everything 00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:25.000 that is built around it. Not to 00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.000 stop. Jesus steps in. 00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:33.000 Not to just stop what's happening, but to expose it. 00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:37.000 We talked through it the last couple of weeks, through his trifle entry, 00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:41.000 through him flipping tables. And we're not just 00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:45.000 looking at us like, what does this relationship 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.000 look like? And when 00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:53.000 he's hung on a cross, when he's 00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:57.000 beaten and walked through the streets, he doesn't respond with fear. 00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:01.000 He responds with forgiveness 00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:05.000 over and over. 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.000 Even on the cross, he says, father forgive them for they know not what they do. 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:13.000 They don't understand. They still have a misconception 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:17.000 about who you are. 00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:21.000 And so, forgive them. 00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:25.000 Because that's what love does, even in a 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.000 broken relationship when it's trying to prove its love. 00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:33.000 And then resurrection happens, and resurrection is where everything 00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:37.000 turns. Because if the cross reveals what fear does, 00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:41.000 then resurrection reveals what is 00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:45.000 actually true about God. That fear is not 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.000 ultimate, that shame is not final, that God is not like we feared. 00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:53.000 Like we poured out the worst that we could 00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:57.000 be in humanity onto Jesus. 00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:01.000 And God, who we thought we should fear, and we're 00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:05.000 shame we have to hide from, God says, I forgive you. 00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.000 You could do the worst of the worst, even to the point of 00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:13.000 killing me, and I will still forgive you. 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:17.000 Do you see who I am? This is what Easter 00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:21.000 is. This God is not like the God that we were told 00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:25.000 to fear. Watch how Jesus shows up 00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.000 after the resurrection. The disciples are hiding. They're in this locked room. 00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:33.000 Jesus walks in and he says, what? Where were you guys? 00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:37.000 Ah, hey, peace be with you. 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:41.000 I wouldn't do this for someone who punched me. 00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:45.000 Brutally murdered him. 00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.000 Jesus walks in and says, peace be with you. 00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:53.000 Not shame, not where were you. Peace. 00:34:53.000 --> 00:34:57.000 Because this is what love does, even when it 00:34:57.000 --> 00:35:01.000 encounters mistakes. Then Peter, 00:35:01.000 --> 00:35:05.000 who denied him three times, I don't know who that dude is, three different times. 00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.000 Jesus shows up, the disciples are out fishing. 00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:13.000 He's yelling at him that Peter can't even recognize him. 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:17.000 He's like, hey, hey, come in here. Let's have some breakfast. 00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:21.000 None of the disciples, this says dared ask, 00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:25.000 who are you? They knew it was the Lord. 00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.000 Jesus came and took the bread and he gave it to them 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:33.000 and he did the same with the fish. This was now 00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:37.000 the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised 00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:41.000 from the dead. Jesus doesn't pull Peter in and lecture him. 00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:45.000 He cooks breakfast. 00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.000 He sits with him. He restores him. He says, we're okay. 00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:53.000 Because in this relationship the one person 00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:57.000 that should be upset is the one friend that you denied 00:35:57.000 --> 00:36:01.000 when he needed it the most. And Jesus says, hey, we're good. 00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:05.000 Brings him back into belonging. 00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.000 Because this is what forgiveness looks like. 00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:13.000 It's not distance. It's presence. It's not exclusion. 00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:17.000 It's not invitation. And this is where everything changed 00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:21.000 for our relationship with God. Because if God meets us like this 00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:25.000 then we don't have to live in fear anymore. 00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.000 Paul says in 2 Timothy 1, for God 00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:33.000 will never give you the spirit of fear. But the Holy Spirit 00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:37.000 who gives you mighty power, love, and self-control 00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:43.000 in your senses, he gave us resurrection life. And drew us to himself by his holy calling on our lives. 00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:47.000 And it wasn't because of any good we have done but by his 00:36:47.000 --> 00:36:51.000 divine pleasure and marvelous grace that confirmed our union 00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:55.000 with the anointed Jesus. Even before time began. 00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:57.000 We were united. 00:36:57.000 --> 00:37:01.000 The truth is now being unveiled by the revelation of the anointed Jesus, 00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:05.000 our life giver who has dismantled death, obliterating 00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.000 all its effects on our lives and has manifest his immortal life 00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:13.000 in us by the gospel. This is why the gospel is good news to 00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:17.000 all people. 00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:21.000 We haven't received a spirit of fear but a spirit of adoption of belonging. 00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:25.000 And when belonging becomes secure 00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.000 in a relationship then everything reorganizes. 00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:33.000 There's less hiding. There's less fear. There's more trust. 00:37:33.000 --> 00:37:37.000 There's more love. 00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:41.000 And Paul prays this in Ephesians when he's talking to the Church of Ephesus. 00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:45.000 And this is a prayer that I look 00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.000 to as a pastor constantly. So I kneel humbly 00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:53.000 and aw before the father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. 00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:57.000 The perfect father of every father in child in heaven and on earth. 00:37:57.000 --> 00:38:01.000 And I pray that he would unveil within you the unlimited riches of his glory 00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:05.000 and favor until supernatural strength 00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.000 floods your innermost being with his divine might and explosive power. 00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:13.000 Then by constantly using your faith the life of Christ will be released 00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:17.000 deep inside of you and the resting place of his love will become the very 00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:21.000 source and root of your life. Then you will be empowered 00:38:21.000 --> 00:38:25.000 to discover what every holy one experiences 00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.000 because once you trust love you can experience love. 00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:33.000 The great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in 00:38:33.000 --> 00:38:37.000 all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far reaching is his 00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:41.000 love. How enduring and inclusive it is. Endless love beyond measurement 00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:45.000 that transcends our understanding. This extravagant love pours into you until 00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.000 you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God. 00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:53.000 Never doubt God's mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. 00:38:53.000 --> 00:38:57.000 He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest requests. 00:38:57.000 --> 00:39:01.000 Unbelievable dream and exceed your wildest imagination. He will outdo 00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:05.000 them all for his miraculous power constantly energizes you. 00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.000 Now we offer to God all the glorious praise that rises from every 00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:13.000 church and every generation through Jesus Christ. And all that will yet 00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:17.000 be manifest through time and eternity. Amen. 00:39:17.000 --> 00:39:21.000 I pray that we would grasp how wide, how long, 00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:25.000 how high, how deep is the love of God. 00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.000 That we would actually experience it. 00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:33.000 Because when that love becomes real it rewires us. 00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:37.000 Love invites us to the table where we find belonging. 00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:41.000 Today we're going to close this out with communion. 00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:45.000 And sometimes communion 00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.000 turns into, or has turned into just this thing we do. 00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:53.000 It's ritual. 00:39:53.000 --> 00:39:57.000 One of the things I love about communion 00:39:57.000 --> 00:40:01.000 is that it's something that we practice and it's 00:40:01.000 --> 00:40:05.000 a setting around a table. 00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.000 We used to do communion in a circle. 00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:13.000 We just can't do that in here right now. 00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:17.000 Oh yeah they're giving you. 00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:21.000 Oh if you're gluten free raise your hand. 00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:25.000 This also loves you. 00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.000 So the beautiful part about communion, and I think, I mean it's in this word, right? 00:40:29.000 --> 00:40:33.000 Like communion is communal. 00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:37.000 And I don't believe that it's just communal, it's not, this is like just 00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:41.000 always this personal thing, just me and God, but I think it's communal 00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:45.000 with us. All of us. We sit at the table when, because when you 00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.000 experience belonging, 00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:53.000 and when someone has 00:40:53.000 --> 00:40:57.000 felt that belonging for a while 00:40:57.000 --> 00:41:01.000 and you're new to the table and you're like, I don't, I'm not sure I belong 00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:05.000 here and they look at you and they go, oh no, if I belong here, you belong here. 00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.000 And then they say, you know what though? 00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:13.000 The longer you're here, the more you'll experience how incredible 00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:17.000 this love is, that brought you to this table. 00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:21.000 It made a seat for you here that actually never said 00:41:21.000 --> 00:41:25.000 that you do not belong. 00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.000 But the entire time that you thought that you were not good enough, that shame told you 00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:33.000 that you could not sit at this table, that love said, no, no, no, I've 00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:37.000 got a seat for you no matter what. This is what Jesus was 00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:41.000 teaching us at Resurrection Sunday, that no matter what 00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:45.000 you do, even to the point of killing him, 00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.000 you're forgiven and you still have a seat at the table. Come sit down, let's have 00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:53.000 breakfast Peter. 00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:57.000 God's plan 00:41:57.000 --> 00:42:01.000 was to show us 00:42:01.000 --> 00:42:05.000 that the serpent lied about who God is. 00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.000 And even though Adam and Eve were deceived about their relationship with God, they were told 00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:13.000 that they could not trust God. The work of Jesus, and if you look 00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:17.000 through the Gospels, he's doing this over and over and over again, the work of the Gospels is Jesus 00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:21.000 showing those that were told that they did not belong, 00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:25.000 that you have a seat at the table. 00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.000 And we can try to spin this and turn into, yeah, yeah, yeah, but he was saying that if they like 00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:33.000 did something different, right? That's not what 00:42:33.000 --> 00:42:37.000 unconditional love and forgiveness look like. 00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:41.000 We can't take back murdering Jesus as humanity on the cross. 00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:45.000 But Jesus says, you're forgiven. 00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.000 Because I understand that you're afraid. 00:42:49.000 --> 00:42:53.000 And fear makes us do crazy 00:42:53.000 --> 00:42:57.000 things in a relationship. And so the only way 00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:01.000 that we can fix this relationship, the only way I can fix it is to show you that you were loved 00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:05.000 and consistently and constantly pursue you, which is what God did. 00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.000 Rob likes to say that God 00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:13.000 made peace with you. 00:43:13.000 --> 00:43:17.000 And when you realize that God, 00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:21.000 God bless you, when you realize that God 00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:25.000 is the person offended in the relationship, right? 00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.000 God is the one that was 00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:33.000 misobeigh that was something happened against the relationship. 00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:37.000 God is the one that could be offended and God 00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:41.000 we're good. We're at peace. 00:43:41.000 --> 00:43:45.000 Believe that. Because when you 00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.000 begin to trust me, I can love you to the fullest 00:43:49.000 --> 00:43:53.000 that I can. And you'll experience it. 00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:57.000 Will you stand with me? 00:43:57.000 --> 00:44:01.000 This has got to be the coolest communion stuff ever. 00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:05.000 Marley and Cass, thank you. 00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.000 Thank you. 00:44:09.000 --> 00:44:13.000 Like I said, this isn't private. This is a communal thing. 00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:17.000 Because when we look around this room, there are people that have experienced the love 00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:21.000 at even a deeper depth than maybe you have. 00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:25.000 All right. 00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.000 All right. 00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:37.000 If you look around this room, there are people that have experienced the love at even a deeper depth than maybe you have. 00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:41.000 And you can look at them and go, is it really that good? 00:44:41.000 --> 00:44:45.000 And they can say, yeah, it really is. 00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.000 And the more that we see that and we experience that in community, 00:44:49.000 --> 00:44:53.000 the more that we begin to believe in. 00:44:53.000 --> 00:44:59.000 The communion is where hiding ends. 00:44:59.000 --> 00:45:03.000 The bread says that you don't have to hide. The cup says that love 00:45:03.000 --> 00:45:07.000 has entered the wound of this relationship and has repaired it. The table says 00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:11.000 that you belong here. 00:45:11.000 --> 00:45:17.000 Paul says, in Corinthians, 00:45:17.000 --> 00:45:21.000 "For I received from the Lord what I also pass on 00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:25.000 you." The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread. 00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.000 And when he had given thanks, he broke it 00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:33.000 and he said, "This is my body, which is for you. 00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:37.000 Do this in remembrance of me." 00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:41.000 Will you experience what it looks like to not hide 00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:45.000 anymore and take you to the bread with us? 00:45:51.000 --> 00:46:15.000 This is what not having to hide looks like. 00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.000 Sorry. In the same way, 00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:23.000 after supper, he took the cup, 00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:27.000 saying, "This cup is the new covenant. 00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:31.000 In my blood, do this 00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:35.000 whenever you drink it in remembrance of me." 00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.000 Will you drink with us? 00:46:39.000 --> 00:46:51.000 Paul goes on to say, "For whenever you eat this bread 00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:55.000 and you drink this cup, you proclaim 00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.000 the Lord's death until he comes." So then 00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:03.000 whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord, 00:47:03.000 --> 00:47:09.000 does it keep going? I stopped. Never mind. I had extras. 00:47:09.000 --> 00:47:13.000 So today, we get to stop hiding. 00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:17.000 That's what Easter invites us into. 00:47:17.000 --> 00:47:21.000 We come back into trust in a relationship 00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:25.000 with God our Creator, who is love 00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.000 at its fullest, who shows us that there's nothing 00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:32.000 that you could do that would disqualify you from 00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:36.000 belonging at my table. 00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:40.000 And when we come back into 00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.000 trust in this relationship, we receive the love 00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:48.000 that moves closer. And we're reminded 00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:52.000 and we get to experience that even in the sharing 00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:56.000 of my struggle, when I believe that love would move away, 00:47:56.000 --> 00:48:00.000 I get to experience that love actually moves closer. 00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.000 He grabs his arm around me and says, "Oh, we're good. 00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:08.000 I love you. I forgive you. 00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:12.000 Let's go do this life thing together." 00:48:12.000 --> 00:48:16.000 My favorite verse is 00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:20.000 it's in Romans 8. It's in the message. 00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.000 Eugene Peterson translates it. "This resurrection life is not a grave 00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:28.000 tending life. It is a life that says, what's next, 00:48:28.000 --> 00:48:32.000 Papa?" Because when you've experienced 00:48:32.000 --> 00:48:36.000 love and forgiveness and belonging, man, life 00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:40.000 gets good. And now you get to go share that. 00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.000 You haven't even experienced it yet. Come back. Come sit down. 00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:48.000 Realize that you belong, that you were loved, that you were forgiven. There's nothing you could do that whatever 00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:52.000 removed God's love from you, even if you've been told that 00:48:52.000 --> 00:48:58.000 you could. 00:48:58.000 --> 00:49:02.000 Because when you receive this love, 00:49:02.000 --> 00:49:06.000 when you understand what belonging really looks like, 00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:10.000 it is not something you can keep a secret. 00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:16.000 And this isn't some, "Hey, go out there and save the world." 00:49:16.000 --> 00:49:20.000 Go out there and love people. Because that's what 00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.000 God called us to do. That's what Jesus shows us over and over and over again. 00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:28.000 "How did he save the world through loving those that thought that they did not 00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:32.000 belong?" Pulling out a chair. 00:49:32.000 --> 00:49:36.000 Just loving. No questions asked. 00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:40.000 That's why every single week 00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.000 we say at the end of our services 00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:48.000 that arsenal, go love well 00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:52.000 because that's who you're made to be. 00:49:52.000 --> 00:49:56.000 Experience the depth of God's love so that you can share 00:49:56.000 --> 00:50:00.000 the expansiveness of God's love with this world. 00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.000 I love you. Happy Resurrection Sunday. 00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:08.000 Never, ever believe the lie that you do not 00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:12.000 belong. Let Jesus remind you that you are loved, 00:50:12.000 --> 00:50:16.000 you're forgiven, and that this resurrection life is yours to share. 00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:20.000 I love you guys. Happy Easter.