WEBVTT 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:19.160 Yeah, you are... See? See? Confirmation. Anyway, where was I at? So nobody knows 00:00:19.160 --> 00:00:31.640 what he says. We are continuing our talk on this emotion of awe. And I've got some 00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:35.320 stuff that I want to talk about today. Oh, man, I don't have to... But I want to do 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:44.720 something first. So let's... Let's do this. I have all kinds of stuff on this table. I 00:00:44.720 --> 00:00:48.960 want you to be able to see... There's like one thing... Well, two things that will 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:54.320 be on this screen that I want you to be able to see. And I'm in the way. So I got 00:00:54.320 --> 00:01:02.720 it. Just... Just preach from the side. They used to... This is what like old school 00:01:02.720 --> 00:01:05.720 church, the youth pastor would have to like preach over here because he couldn't 00:01:05.720 --> 00:01:13.640 use the pulpit. Still feel like... That's why I wear a hoodie. Still feel like the 00:01:13.640 --> 00:01:21.160 youth pastor. I literally every time I get... I get dressed in the morning, come to 00:01:21.160 --> 00:01:26.560 church. I'm like, all right, dress like an adult chad. And then I grab my hoodie. And 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:31.240 like this morning, I was putting... I had a sweatshirt on, but I just didn't like 00:01:31.240 --> 00:01:39.920 it. So I put the hoodie on. And I had a video on TikTok that kind of like... I'm 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:45.600 just got a lot of views. And there's a guy on there that was like, I don't take my 00:01:45.600 --> 00:01:53.000 theology from someone wearing a hoodie. And Mottie like clap back at him. And I 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:58.320 was like, yeah. But every time I put a hoodie on to come to church, I'm like, 00:01:58.320 --> 00:02:02.840 people aren't gonna hear me today because they don't listen to theology. But 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:13.360 hopefully you do. So I'm gonna show you a short video clip. And in this clip, some of 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:19.600 you may have seen this. In this clip, there are people passing a basketball 00:02:19.600 --> 00:02:26.160 back and forth. All right. You've got a job to do. And it's a simple job. There are 00:02:26.160 --> 00:02:30.240 people in white t-shirts and there are people in black t-shirts. Your job is to 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:36.480 count the number of passes that the people in the white t-shirts do. Okay. 00:02:36.480 --> 00:02:44.680 Which t-shirts are we counting? White t-shirts. There's a prize. Count how many 00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:48.600 passes the team in the white jerseys makes t-shirts. That's it. Just count them 00:02:48.600 --> 00:02:57.060 ready. Let's see if this works. Hopefully this works. Not out loud. 00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:31.000 All right. How many did you count? Oh, I got 16. 15. 10. Some of you guys can't 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:42.360 count. Correct answers. 15 passes. Yes. Yes. So if you if you said 15, you get free 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:53.720 coffee. All right. Here we go. 15 pounds. Oh, man, I'm I'm gonna be in the way again. 00:03:53.720 --> 00:03:59.200 I'm I am. This is what happens when Marty goes out of town, guys. This is it. This is 00:03:59.200 --> 00:04:08.320 what happens. It's not her fault. I just it's not her fault. I'm sorry. I shouldn't 00:04:08.320 --> 00:04:18.920 say okay. Sorry. Oh my gosh. So all right. So 15 passes. Now I got another question. 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:23.680 All right. How many people raise your hand if you saw something unusual in the 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:28.480 video? Okay. Put your hands down. How many people did not see anything unusual in 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:35.560 the video? Raise your hand. Come on. Put it up. So you didn't see the gorilla in the 00:04:35.560 --> 00:04:44.760 video? No gorilla. Yeah. Raise your hand again. If you did not see the gorilla, about half 00:04:44.760 --> 00:04:53.840 the room. Okay. Um, there was a gorilla. Oh, see. So he saw the gorilla. So raise your 00:04:53.840 --> 00:05:00.400 hand if you saw the gorilla and you counted the passes correctly. Like, like six of 00:05:00.400 --> 00:05:06.920 you. All right. Cool. All right. We're gonna, I'll re show you the video so you can see 00:05:06.920 --> 00:05:14.160 the gorilla. You ready? Here we go. There he is. Look at him. There he goes. Oh, he didn't 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:23.920 just walk through stops, beats his chest, keeps walking. And some of y'all didn't 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:38.760 even see that. That's scary. Um, so this is a psychological experiment. Oh, it has 00:05:38.760 --> 00:05:51.920 been done for a long time. Thanks, Britney. What? Yeah, it's an experiment that's happened 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:59.600 where, and that happens every time about half the people will not see the gorilla. And there's 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:08.120 a reason for it. The psychologists call this in attentional blindness, inattentional blindness. 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:14.280 And what it is is when our attention is narrowly focused on something, we are trying to count 00:06:14.280 --> 00:06:21.880 these, these passes, we can completely miss something. There's obviously happening right 00:06:21.880 --> 00:06:31.360 in front of us. This happens all the time with Mottie. I save her life weekly. She said, 00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:35.600 I knew you're going to bring this up. We'll be walking. I'm like, stop. That's a car coming. 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:42.320 Like, you're going to die. I think she does. It just to make me feel good. But, uh, yeah, 00:06:42.320 --> 00:06:50.080 we'll miss. That's what it is. We'll miss something. The gorilla, it isn't invisible. 00:06:50.080 --> 00:06:56.440 It was in the video. Half of you saw it. But our attention just isn't available to see 00:06:56.440 --> 00:07:05.520 it. Turns out that this isn't just the funny psychological experiment. I think it points 00:07:05.520 --> 00:07:17.000 to a lot of things in our lives and how our life works out in a lot of ways. It's a, actually, 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:28.560 really good picture of how, like, anxiety works. You're experiencing anxiety, your, it, 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:35.000 your mind focuses, like, it focuses in. When you're, you're anxious, when you're worried, 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:40.440 when you're afraid, your attention kind of narrows, the brain shifts into this, like, 00:07:40.440 --> 00:07:46.720 threat detection mode. You're trying to scan for danger and figure out what is happening. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:54.080 What could go wrong? What might we lose? Who might hurt us? Where's the threat? What did 00:07:54.080 --> 00:08:01.120 I do wrong? Right? And researchers studying anxiety have found that when the brain is 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:09.280 operating from fear, our perception shrinks. We become hyper focused on problems, threats 00:08:09.280 --> 00:08:21.040 and urgency. We begin missing other things that are still present. We just miss them. 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:26.800 When we see this happen in a story in scripture, that I think we've looked at from a different 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:34.680 angle before. And so I want to, I want to look at it and point this out. There's two 00:08:34.680 --> 00:08:43.320 sisters, Mary and Martha, and Jesus comes to their home to visit them. It's in Luke 10, 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:49.960 and it goes like this. Luke 10, verse 38, "As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, 00:08:49.960 --> 00:08:55.120 she came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister 00:08:55.120 --> 00:09:00.720 called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said, but Martha was distracted 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:06.520 by all the preparation it had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you 00:09:06.520 --> 00:09:15.280 care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me." Martha, 00:09:15.280 --> 00:09:23.640 the Lord answered, "You're worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, 00:09:23.640 --> 00:09:31.000 or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:38.480 her." So Jesus is visiting this home, and it's one of those moments where Mary's like, 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:46.480 "All right, we got to get this stuff together." But if Jesus is in your home, you want to 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:53.240 be fully present for that, right? You want to be present for Jesus, but Martha is moving 00:09:53.240 --> 00:09:58.300 through the house. She's trying to hold everything together. She's like hospitality, food, preparation, 00:09:58.300 --> 00:10:05.480 expectations. You guys have had parties at your house before, right? The Greek word used 00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:14.760 in this story that Jesus says to Mary, it means to be pulled apart, dragged in different 00:10:14.760 --> 00:10:23.640 directions. Sorry, not Mary, Martha. Her attention is fragmented, and her mind is everywhere 00:10:23.640 --> 00:10:29.400 while Jesus is sitting in her home. And eventually the frustration spills out, like, "Lord, don't 00:10:29.400 --> 00:10:36.680 you care that she is not helping me. Tell her to help me." You can almost, you can hear 00:10:36.680 --> 00:10:43.360 this, right? You can hear this conversation, and hear the exhaustion in that moment. Jesus 00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:51.640 answers her in a way that is incredibly gentle. He's like, "You're worried. You're distracted 00:10:51.640 --> 00:11:03.120 by so many things. He's not shaming her. He's simply naming what's happening. Your attention 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:09.360 has been captured by your anxiety." And some of you in here are like, "No, no, no. She 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:19.440 needs to get this stuff done." But does she? That's the question. Does this really matter 00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:29.240 right now? Mary, he says, has chosen the better thing. For a long time, this, I think this 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:34.360 story has been interpreted as if Jesus is saying that contemplation is more spiritual 00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:42.880 than work. But I don't think that's what he's saying here. Mary and Martha are living inside 00:11:42.880 --> 00:11:49.000 the exact same moment, same house, same evening, same Jesus, but they're experiencing two completely 00:11:49.000 --> 00:12:00.640 different realities. Martha's attention has collapsed into urgency. Again, let's say this 00:12:00.640 --> 00:12:04.240 about Martha. I don't think this was just something she thought up. I don't think it's 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:09.020 something that she's like, "I'm going to make sure that I'm worried about everything and 00:12:09.020 --> 00:12:14.320 anxious and I'm going to do this. This culture has taught her, would be my guess, that this 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:27.200 stuff needs to happen. There's a level of expectation that I must meet Jesus' in my home." 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:36.240 And then Mary's attention is wide enough in this moment to receive the moment. And when 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:47.960 your attention is widened like that, something else becomes possible, curiosity. When you 00:12:47.960 --> 00:12:56.360 sit down and you listen, curiosity becomes this place that you are living. Researchers 00:12:56.360 --> 00:13:02.720 that are studying, they've discovered something that's pretty fascinating. People who regularly 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:09.600 experience awe actually become more comfortable with uncertainty. Their brains become less 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:18.440 desperate for quick answers. They're less reactive, they're more open. The opposite, 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:25.400 fear demands certainty. Fear wants simple explanations. Who's right? Who's wrong? Who's 00:13:25.400 --> 00:13:36.940 good? Who's evil? Fear wants clear enemies and wants clear answers. But awe does something 00:13:36.940 --> 00:13:44.240 different. We talk about this every week now, awe expands the mind. And psychologists say 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:50.680 that when this happens, when we encounter something vast, you've heard this definition, 00:13:50.680 --> 00:13:56.320 and when we encounter something vast, so beautiful, so unexpected that our normal mental framework 00:13:56.320 --> 00:14:05.680 can't explain it. And instead of panicking, the mind expands. Curiosity then replaces 00:14:05.680 --> 00:14:12.960 certainty. And that ship turns out to be deeply connected to Scripture, as we've talked about 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:20.400 for months, where the writer of Proverbs in the wisdom literature says, "The fear of 00:14:20.400 --> 00:14:25.720 the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," but the Hebrew word we've talked about doesn't 00:14:25.720 --> 00:14:32.640 really mean terror or fear. It means awe or wonder or reverence. This kind of overwhelming 00:14:32.640 --> 00:14:39.000 realization that you are standing inside something bigger than your current understanding. And 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:46.920 when you think about it, this is exactly where wisdom begins. This has been the deep dive, 00:14:46.920 --> 00:14:51.560 because it makes sense, because to me fear doesn't leave the wisdom. In fact, we know 00:14:51.560 --> 00:15:01.640 that fear closes us off. I need certainty. I can't be curious, but awe does the opposite. 00:15:01.640 --> 00:15:08.800 Because wisdom does not start when you think you understand everything. Wisdom begins when 00:15:08.800 --> 00:15:15.400 your perspective becomes wide enough to realize that you don't. And that shift, I think, matters 00:15:15.400 --> 00:15:26.400 because fear and awe produce two very different ways of seeing the world. Fear simplifies it. 00:15:26.400 --> 00:15:37.840 Fear turns people into categories, into enemies, outsiders, threats. We see this happening constantly 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:49.080 in the world around us, even in the church. I think about it. Right now, our country is 00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:59.600 talking about an "in" a conflict with Iran. And you hear voices, political voices, even 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:06.400 religious voices, that are framing this conflict as spiritual. They're using spiritual terms 00:16:06.400 --> 00:16:13.360 to frame what is happening in the country of Iran. As if it's part of some prophetic 00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:28.320 script, part of the "In Times" timeline. Anybody else? Left behind? Red moon? Part of a holy 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:34.560 war. Between the good and evil, right? We've separated. Who's good? Who's evil? And when 00:16:34.560 --> 00:16:42.840 that lens becomes dominant, the people living in the other country, they stop being human 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:53.640 beings. They become symbols. They're enemies. They are characters in a prophecy chart. 00:16:53.640 --> 00:17:05.580 Their lives are just a means to an end, like that. They've got to die so that Jesus can 00:17:05.580 --> 00:17:19.840 come. But here's where, for me, this intersection happens in my life. You guys know this. I did 00:17:19.840 --> 00:17:30.040 two tours in Iraq. Spent 27 months in the Middle East. I was a linguist that studied Persian 00:17:30.040 --> 00:17:38.040 Farsi, which is spoken, that's the language spoken in Iran. I spent years learning about 00:17:38.040 --> 00:17:45.880 the Persian culture, Persian history, Persian poetry. My professors in my language school 00:17:45.880 --> 00:17:56.160 were all from Iran. They had all left at the fall of the Shah in 1979. They would bring 00:17:56.160 --> 00:18:05.160 home-cooked food to our class, and we'd get to eat incredible Persian meals. And once 00:18:05.160 --> 00:18:12.040 you start learning those things, something shifts. Because suddenly, Iran is not just 00:18:12.040 --> 00:18:27.020 a headline. It's people. Their families, their artists, their parents, their kids, people 00:18:27.020 --> 00:18:31.440 trying to build a life, people laughing around the dinner table, people worrying about the 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:44.000 future of their children, just like us. But fear turns people into symbols. What we keep 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:48.920 talking about this thing of all, the hope is that when we experience awe, knowing what 00:18:48.920 --> 00:18:59.240 it does for us, that it will restore humanity for us. It will restore the idea that these 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:11.520 are human beings. Jesus did this constantly throughout the gospels. Right before this 00:19:11.520 --> 00:19:21.320 story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10, you get the story of the Good Samaritan. Today, the 00:19:21.320 --> 00:19:30.280 word Samaritan sounds positive to us. There's charities named after it. But there were centuries 00:19:30.280 --> 00:19:36.720 of religious hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans. In Jesus' world, Samaritans 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:45.760 were the enemy to the Jews around him. So when Jesus tells a story about compassion, the 00:19:45.760 --> 00:19:51.880 hero of the story isn't the priest, it isn't the religious leader, it's the Samaritan, 00:19:51.880 --> 00:20:03.680 the outsider, the enemy. In Jesus' story, the enemy becomes the neighbor. And that's 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:10.640 what awe does. It brings us back to a place where we realize the connection that we all 00:20:10.640 --> 00:20:19.000 have. It widens the frame enough to disrupt the categories that fear creates, that we 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:28.240 continue to hear. And that perspective, it reaches its peak in something that Jesus says 00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:39.280 now at the end of Matthew, that I don't understand how we miss this. That's not true, I do understand. 00:20:39.280 --> 00:20:47.920 Because whatever lens you're reading through dictates how you understand it. In the end 00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:54.200 of Matthew, Matthew 25, verse 35, it says, "For I was hungry and you gave me something 00:20:54.200 --> 00:20:58.600 to eat." This is Jesus. "I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger 00:20:58.600 --> 00:21:02.640 and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked 00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:10.680 after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer, "Lord, 00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:16.200 when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:23.160 did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothes you? When did 00:21:23.160 --> 00:21:28.480 we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" The king will reply, "Truly I tell 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:32.360 you. Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you 00:21:32.360 --> 00:21:40.040 did for me." He's telling the story about final judgment about the end, right? And he's 00:21:40.040 --> 00:21:43.080 telling the story of, "Hey, when I was hungry you fed me." And they're like, "What do you 00:21:43.080 --> 00:21:50.760 talk? No, we didn't. You did the loaves and the fishes thing." That wasn't us. People 00:21:50.760 --> 00:21:59.000 were asking him, "When did we do this?" Jesus answers with one of the most shocking lines 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:03.640 in the entire gospel if you really look at it, like whatever you did for the least of 00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:14.880 these you did for me. Now, the line gets quoted a lot, right? But sit with what Jesus is actually 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:26.740 saying. He's collapsing the distance between himself and humanity. He's saying, "When you 00:22:26.740 --> 00:22:34.880 care for someone who is suffering, you're encountering me." And I think there's something 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:44.320 even deeper happening here. Jesus is reminding us that humanity is not a collection of disconnected 00:22:44.320 --> 00:22:52.680 individuals. We are part of a shared whole, a shared humanity. And when awe widens your 00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:58.920 attention, you begin to see that. You begin to realize that the suffering of another person 00:22:58.920 --> 00:23:09.600 is not separate from you. But their dignity is tied to yours. That their flourishing is 00:23:09.600 --> 00:23:14.520 tied to yours. When we care for the least, we are caring for the human family that we 00:23:14.520 --> 00:23:27.220 belong to. And maybe that's why the ancient wisdom writers said, "The awe of the Lord 00:23:27.220 --> 00:23:34.760 is the beginning of wisdom." Not fear. Ah, because awe changes the lens through which 00:23:34.760 --> 00:23:44.400 we see everything. We have choices to make when we encounter things in life. How do we 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:51.160 receive them and how do we perceive them? And then what do we do with that? Fear lifts 00:23:51.160 --> 00:23:59.160 our eyes constantly toward the next threat, the next disaster, the next enemy. Fear keeps 00:23:59.160 --> 00:24:07.400 scanning the horizon to see what's coming. But awe does something different. All will 00:24:07.400 --> 00:24:15.760 lower our gaze. It brings us back to present moment, back to the people in front of us, 00:24:15.760 --> 00:24:22.840 back to the humanity that we share with the stranger, back to the neighbor, back to the 00:24:22.840 --> 00:24:31.400 least of these. And when that shift happens, our vision changes, literally everything. 00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:37.040 You see the world differently. Fear teaches us to look for enemies, but awe teaches us 00:24:37.040 --> 00:24:44.560 to recognize family. I think about this. I talked about this a while back. When Jesus 00:24:44.560 --> 00:24:54.200 says to love your enemy, love your enemy as yourself. Just like in this part of Matthew 00:24:54.200 --> 00:24:59.760 25, I think He's doing the same thing there. Love your enemy as yourself. What Jesus is 00:24:59.760 --> 00:25:08.680 saying is, you are the same. There are enemies. Humanity is humanity. If we're enemies of 00:25:08.680 --> 00:25:13.760 each other, then we're hurting each other. We're hurting ourselves. Like, this is not 00:25:13.760 --> 00:25:24.360 how this works. When we are one, you can't be an enemy with yourself then. Jesus reframes 00:25:24.360 --> 00:25:30.320 this constantly. They are part of you. Do you see this? They're part of you. Yeah, they 00:25:30.320 --> 00:25:34.000 speak a different language. They look different. They eat different food. They live somewhere 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:47.360 else. They might even be a different religion. They are still part of you because we are human 00:25:47.360 --> 00:25:57.760 beings. It is what allows us to see Christ in places that fear has told us He could never 00:25:57.760 --> 00:26:05.200 be. When we learn to see the world that way, we begin to live with the kind of wisdom 00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:10.840 the Proverbs we're talking about all along because awe doesn't change what we feel. It 00:26:10.840 --> 00:26:22.080 changes what we see. What we see then shapes the kind of people that we become. We start 00:26:22.080 --> 00:26:27.600 living differently. We start loving differently. We start seeing differently. And every once 00:26:27.600 --> 00:26:36.160 in a while, we may even find ourselves doing things that once felt impossible. We talked 00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:45.640 about last week stepping out of the boat. To walk on water is the miracle that all cause 00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:53.560 us to. It doesn't make sense. Why do you, what are you doing? Why do you love this person? 00:26:53.560 --> 00:26:58.240 Why are you doing? It doesn't make sense. Because the concept of the gospel does not 00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:05.960 make sense in a fear driven mindset. But when you step back and you allow awe and wonder 00:27:05.960 --> 00:27:12.000 to take over and you allow your perspective to change, you allow your vision to change 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:20.680 how you see other people. We get to live from a place where loving others just seems natural. 00:27:20.680 --> 00:27:31.720 And this is where Jesus, I hear this quite a bit in churches right now. The scripture 00:27:31.720 --> 00:27:38.800 says that they're going to hate you. Because they hated Jesus. The scripture says they're 00:27:38.800 --> 00:27:43.800 going to hate you. Because you're coming and you're talking about what holiness actually 00:27:43.800 --> 00:27:54.440 looks like. That's not why they killed Jesus. Not because he was being perfect in his behavior. 00:27:54.440 --> 00:27:58.320 Not because he was showing that he was so much better than other people. No, they killed 00:27:58.320 --> 00:28:06.280 him because he was loving people that they said he wasn't supposed to. Yes, they will 00:28:06.280 --> 00:28:10.040 hate that. Because when they tell you that this is an enemy and you go, no, no, no, that's 00:28:10.040 --> 00:28:21.320 my brother. You're now siding with the wrong team. But when you operate outside of that 00:28:21.320 --> 00:28:30.320 mindset, there are no teams. I don't, I'm not on a team. We love each other. That's what 00:28:30.320 --> 00:28:36.460 we're supposed to do. That's what Christ called us to do. That is the, the call of the gospel 00:28:36.460 --> 00:28:46.040 is to understand that you are now one with Christ. His prayer in John 17 to, to his father 00:28:46.040 --> 00:28:53.480 is at God. I pray that they would know that as you and I are one, that we are one and 00:28:53.480 --> 00:29:03.120 they are one. The idea is that we are supposed to just be loving each other. But we've turned 00:29:03.120 --> 00:29:15.120 this thing inside out. And so dropping bombs on schools full of little girls gets brushed 00:29:15.120 --> 00:29:26.120 off. It's a casualty of the war, which is, which is really, really easy to say when you 00:29:26.120 --> 00:29:37.160 haven't picked up human remains off the ground of the Middle East. But when you have, you 00:29:37.160 --> 00:29:48.360 realize that this is no different than me. They are no different than what are we doing? 00:29:48.360 --> 00:29:58.400 Fear will allow us to distance ourselves and call people enemies. The call, the gospel, 00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:04.520 the call of the life of Christ is to pull us back and say, no, no, no, widen your vision. 00:30:04.520 --> 00:30:11.760 Look at all that is happening. And when you do, you will experience this emotion called 00:30:11.760 --> 00:30:18.800 awe and awe will call you into a place where you are more curious and more kind and more 00:30:18.800 --> 00:30:31.240 generous and more caring because you understand that to love my neighbor is to love myself, 00:30:31.240 --> 00:30:41.240 which is why every single week our call here is to say arsenal go love well because that 00:30:41.240 --> 00:30:44.000 is who you're made to be. I love you guys. We'll see you next week.