sermon series
What’s the Key To A Great Marriage?
Do you mind if I vent for a bit? Thank you. I get asked all the time – “what’s the key to a great marriage?”
My first reaction is – You mean there’s only one?? I’m 19 years, 9 months, and 15 days into this experience called marriage and I could have sworn there are more like 476 of them.
I really hate the question. It’s like getting a text – ‘G – u xplain revelation 2 me?’ Like we can text it out what it takes to make a great marriage. Like we can put all the mystery and magic of marriage in 140 characters. Impossible. Nothing great is ever easy or that simple.
Nothing.
Don’t misunderstand my vent as being negative about marriage. That’s not it at all. I still think it’s the second greatest institution on the planet. It’s just I’m sick of what we’re making it in our culture. We’ve cheapened it to almost the level of buying a car. “If it gets too many miles on it or I get tired of it or if I wreck it – I’ll just trade it in for another model.”
I understand the drive behind the question. Most of us that are married – we want a great marriage. But we approach it like the broken garbage disposal or leaky faucet. We notice it when it breaks. We then want the quickest, cheapest fix so we can get back to what we were doing. We see it as a distraction. The goal is to get it fixed as fast as possible. So maybe it will take a couple of trips to the hardware store but if I find the right guy who can give me the right tool and right tip, I can fix it fast.
Allow me to offer another metaphor for marriage. Art. Jazz. Blues. Painting. Sculpture. An artist isn’t concerned about hurrying through a fix. He’s focused on creating something deeper, something that provokes. If it takes days, weeks, months – so be it. The outcome is a result of this mystical partnership between the artist and the medium. The painter and the colors and canvas, the musician with the instrument – there is give and take, there are moments that are complete messes followed by moments of perfection. Neither really knows what the end will look like but then again that really doesn’t matter. Half the fun is getting there.
Any true artist will tell you – the process is often more important than the product.
We don’t ask artists that kind of question. “What’s the key to a great piece of art?” Instead we ask – what inspires you? How did you do this? What is the story behind this? We don’t ask the question because we already know the answer – the artist is the key to a great piece of art. An artist that has given his or her life to the craft. An artist that is courageous enough to risk bold colors, passionate enough to keep pursuing beauty through the mess of the creative process. An artist that is determined enough to not give up on the painting – even if it means stripping it all down and starting over.
Here’s another little secret about artists – they work. They work hard. Sure they may have a gift or a talent but they put that gift to work, sharpening and improving it. They put in hours and hours of work so that one day a masterpiece will be birthed.
So maybe I’ve answered the question. Marriage is more art than anything else. And like art, even a novice can create something beautiful if they are willing to put in the time and effort.
Join us for this special series Art of Marriage, created by FamilyLife. For complete details click here.
Image “Broken Keys” originally appeared on SoundLogik.com on a review for the band “The Black Keys”. Who, by the way, are completely awesome. I’m just saying…
More Questions From Great Sex
Here’s the devo I wrote this week….
Time to go to the mailbag for some more questions on our current series GREATsex.
Is great sex possible for those who have been abused? Or those who have a past of sexual sins?
I’m actually going to speak about this topic this coming Sunday. I really encourage you to be a part of our worship services this weekend, I think there will be some help for us in scriptures.
I’m married. I love my spouse but our sex life is a disaster. Are there any Christian resources that can help us?
I’d recommend two great resources.
First, Intended For Pleasure by Ed and Gaye Wheat. There are newer books written about sexual issues from a Christian perspective but not any better than this one.
Second, Restoring The Pleasure by Clifford and Joyce Penner. The Penners have actually written a few books on this topic and you’re not going to go wrong with any of their books. But this one specifically deals with problems and barriers in the sexual component of a marriage.
Fair warning about both books: The authors are Christ-followers and the intended audience for these books are married couples. They speak bluntly about sex and sex techniques. It is not for the easily offended. But I’m guessing you are not one of those since you asked the question.
At what age should I start talking to my children about sex?
As soon as you can. Don’t treat sex as the “unspeakable subject” at your house. When we are quiet about topics in our homes, we allow the culture around us to have a larger voice in our kids lives. Your home is the best chance for your kids to learn about sex correctly and from a godly perspective.
So, when they ask, answer them. Obviously we want to be age appropriate in our response. Kids are curious and most of the time their questions are just innocent inquiries. So be sure to answer the question they are asking, nothing more, nothing less. And answer it in a way that they can understand.
Couple of great resources:
How and When To Tell Your Kids About Sex
Passport2Purity from FamilyLife.com.
Is it okay for a Christian couple to watch porn as long as they are both okay with it?
No. Pornography is deadly to oneness. It is the exact opposite of intimacy – which is the foundation of great sex. Porn introduces another person or persons into the marriage bed, it provokes feeling of lust, and it never satisfies. Introducing this into a marriage is just bad news and won’t end well.
My spouse seems intent on watching inappropriate movies. What can I do? Am I to blame?
If by inappropriate we mean porn, then I’d suggest at least these 4 things:
First, pray for him/her that God would give them freedom from this.
Second, find a private time and place to talk about the behavior and how it hurts you and the marriage.
Third, offer some solutions that you both can live with. Put a filter on computer (Covenant Eyes). Move computer to main floor where everybody can see. No TV alone. Call each other when the urge to watch porn starts.
Fourth, find someone other than spouse to be accountable to.
Join us this Sunday as we wrap up our series on GREATsex. This week’s topic: Do-Overs.
Can You Talk About Sex In Church
I wrote this devo for our church website yesterday. I’ve added a few more thoughts…
On April 3rd, we’ll start a new series called GOODsex. I told a buddy of mine this and after an awkward pause he says to me…”Can you talk about sex in church?”
I guess it’s a fair question. Most of the messages I got in church about sex was to “NOT TO.” It was this evil plague of desire and sin. And if you’re married…well, you can have sex with your spouse but you better not enjoy it too much because…well…it’s this evil plague of desire and sin. It was so bad that at every church potluck someone would bring a cake called “Better Than Sex Cake.”
Guess what I know now that I’m older? Sex is about desire, it CAN be a plague as well as a blessing, it’s designed for married people to enjoy to the fullest, and those people who named the “Better Than Sex Cake” are at best in need of our prayers and pity or at worst liars.
Know what else I’ve learned? The Bible is full of sex. God has plenty to say on the topic, all of it as relevant today as it has ever been, all for humanity’s benefit and pleasure. And so few of us are listening. So get ready to learn about GOODsex.
Let me tackle a few questions before we get started…
Why talk about sex in church?
Because it’s in every other single piece of media that we interact with. We’d better have a biblical, redeemable understanding of the topic if we are going to be able to deal with all of that kind of noise.
What about the children?
Every parent has the responsibility to train their kids in the area of sexuality. So we will have alternatives for those kids in 4th grade and younger, but let’s be honest. Sex is everywhere in our culture. Our schools are teaching sex education at younger and younger age. In Kindergarten and 1st grade now they are teaching kids what a “bad touch” is. Our media is targeting younger and younger kids with sexuality with kid ‘soap operas.’ Our music industry continues to turn out a ridiculous amount of music about love, sex, and dating.
In short, our kids are getting their messages and information about sex from every single source in their life except the Church and their parents. That has to change.
So…won’t you offend somebody by doing this?
That’s not the intention. However, the reality is that whenever sex is the topic – that’s a real possibility. Here’s what I’m saying – the goal is to learn from the creator of sex on how to have good sex in the best possible way. Sex was God’s idea. It was his first wedding gift to Adam and Eve. Over the years, we’ve ruined it and made it the mess that is today. I think He still speaks to this topic, can still heal and redeem in this area.
Why now?
Both our 5th/6th grade class and our student ministry will be tackling this issue starting April 3rd. But it’s short sighted to think that this topic only applies to teenagers. There is much here for the single, the daters, the engaged, the married with kids and the married without kids.
We’ve been silent for to long on this subject.
My Take On the 10 Plagues
Intro video I’ll use this week with sermon.
NOISE: Can you hear Him?
This is the new sermon series we will start on Sunday. It’s a look into Exodus…
When God Asks For Something…
When God asks us for something, it will be because He has already provided what He’s asking for or He knows that we no longer need it for the journey ahead. Every sacrifice ever given falls into one of those two categories.
He’s provided the sacrifice. All that I have is because of God’s goodness and grace. I can’t point to a single thing in my life that God hasn’t provided for me. Jacob understands this reality in Genesis 31. By understanding this myself, it will put in proper perspective what a sacrifice really costs me.
I no longer need it. Sin, hurt, bitterness, self-reliance – whatever I name, it could be that when God asks for it, I no longer need it in my life. And it’s to my ultimate benefit to sacrifice it to the Father.
The frustrating bit in this equation is my insistence to take back my sacrifice. I’ll sneak in when I think nobody is looking and take what I just put on the altar back off. Then God and I have start all over again. And this – in a nutshell – is the story of Jacob. It’s why he flip-flops being called in scripture Israel and Jacob. Sometimes, he’s Israel, God rules, God has the last word. Sometimes he is Jacob, the deceiver, the trickster.
The good news is that God chooses to work through both, won’t give up on either. That God’s grace and power is greater than sin.
The LIFE Series takes a twist
Our current series has an interesting story behind it. Our mantra at Western Hills is Love God, Live Connected, Serve All. A believer needs to traveling in these three key areas – worship, transformative small group, and service – for them to be maturing in Christ Jesus. The church then is a conduit to participate in these activities. Those two simple statements pack a lot of punch in terms of programming (or lack thereof) and preaching. Quite bluntly it means asking the question is what we do and what we say line up with Love, Live, and Serve?
Take our current series (LIFE: Living Connected in a Disconnected World) for example. When we put this on the calendar (last year) it was a value decision. If Love, Live, and Serve are real values and really core, we are going to HAVE to teach on them…consistently and creatively. Not enough to JUST illustrate them, put them on the walls, in the bulletin, and in the announcements.
While the last 4 weeks of this series have been good, I’m amped about how we are closing out the series over the next 4 weeks. We’ve looked at the theoretical and practical implications of living connected and why it’s important. Now it’s time to hear some real life stories how a life group experience really changes people and how that change impacts the world around them. Here is the journey in front of us for the next 4 weeks. I’m super amped about the twist in the series!!
John Mark – how he discovers his identity and gifts.
Barnabas – how an investor of resources and time develops others.
Ruth & Naomi – how fierce loyalty and belonging led to believing.
Zipporah – how keeping others accountable led to the Exodus.
My Thoughts About The New Series: LIFE, Week 1
Our new series LIFE got a HUGE start with the help of the Creative Team turning our entire set into a kitchen and then our fine actors knocking the drama right out of the park.
As our actors so wonderfully asked — is this all there is to LIFE? I have a nagging feeling there is more to it than what I know and am experiencing.
Some of the nuggets said on Sunday morning…
Humanity’s search for happiness and meaning is hindered by two fatal blind spots.
First, we are spiritual beings with a body, not a physical being with a soul. Therefore, first priority should be given to our souls. More often, the physical/temporal gets priority over the spiritual/eternal.
Second, we were designed by God for intimacy. Relationships that are vertical and horizontal. It’s why the Greatest Commandment were about intimacy vertical (love God) and and horizontal (love others).
How Jesus established His ministry and His Church addresses these two blind spots. His focus on the Word of God and the use of a small group of disciples.
The decision to use a small group as basis for His Church and discipleship model was purposeful and still useful for the church today. And it’s why we do Life Groups at WHBC.
It is impossible to be mature in Christ without a small group experience. The large communal worship time is the appetizer to the main course. Live, Love, and Serve can best be incarnated in Life Groups.
Good start to what I think is going to be a fantastic series.
Hostage: Addiction
Another incredible morning. Sermon will be uploaded soon (whillschurch.org). We had some MAJOR glitches behind the scenes this week. The worship center computer crashed plus the projector wouldn’t come on and had to be reset. On Thursday, it me that we needed to serve communion. Gary H. did a great job at getting us set up to do this. In the middle of dealing with all of this God reminded me that if you let it, the non-important will distract you from the vital. I’m so glad we didn’t.
Addiction comes in all sorts of sizes and packages. Some more acceptable than others, some easier to recognize than others. But all addictions have one end in mind – total dominance and control over a person. Whether it’s drugs, alcohol, porn, eating, greed, pride — the inevitable end of every addiction is to consume.
Addictions consume, control, and rob people. It becomes their god.
Paul’s journey in Romans 6,7, and 8 has great insight for addicts. I don’t do what I want to do but the evil I don’t want to do I do. The solution is to feed the “Good Wolf.” (Confused? Listen to the sermon! ha ha)
Romans 8:1 is the most scandalous verse in scripture. How ridiculous is it to say there is NO, none, nada — zip — condemnation for those IN Christ Jesus? Our bodies and emotions don’t believe this truth of scripture most of the time. Yet, this truth stands in the middle of our messes as God’s declaration of what He wants to do, WILL do and IS doing for those who place their life IN Christ. It’s nothing sort of scandalous.
It doesn’t remove our need for God AND our need for a place to share the LAST 10%. It does provide the basis for such a context – since there is no condemnation, I can BE accountable.
Next week: Anger
Hostage: Worry Thoughts
Another great weekend. I was pleasantly surprised with our crowd given this was Memorial Day weekend and the first real weekend of good weather around here. I remember last year, church felt like a ghost town. Not at all this year.
I was also totally surprised by how few people knew who Bear Grylls was. He is the patron saint of worrying about things that will probably never happen. I love his shows, his accent, his charitable works, and I think I’d like to hang with him — as long as I didn’t have to eat like him. I’m glad I showed the two clips of his shows because if I hadn’t – the joke/illustration would have completely been lost. Plus now our congregation knows the awesomeness that is Bear Grylls. Thank God for technology, huh?
Worry is sneaky because many of us don’t see it as a sin AND because it tricks us into thinking we have control over more than what we really do.
Worry is saying to God “I don’t think You are big enough to handle my problem.” Worry is the loss of perspective of big God is.
The weapon against worry – Matthew 6:33-34 — Seek first the Kingdom of God. Let God consume us and that will put in proper perspective our problems. God has given us a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.
A sound mind is one that does what God asks me to do, gives to God what I cannot do, and trusts God no matter what happens.
I do think the ‘sound mind’ piece can often be missed. I have this conversation over and over and over again in all my years as a pastor — if you’ll do what you KNOW God wants you to do (His Word, serve, worship, give) it will be easier to recognize His voice when He speaks. If you NEVER do what is CLEAR that God wants us to do, you’ll NEVER recognize His voice in the more subtle ways.
Next week in Hostage is ANGER.
First Thoughts On New Series: Hostage
Wow. What a start to a series.
Yesterday we dealt with bitterness and I’m already hearing God-stories. The highlights for me:
The only solution to bitterness is forgiveness. Only those who’ve been forgiven can really give forgiveness.
And forgiveness is NOT about justifying the hurt. It’s about moving us to a place to be healed. Without this healing, we’ll end up poisoning ourselves as well as those around us.
Had the opportunity to pray with people for forgiveness and a new start.
Going to be a great series….going to see a lot of healing over the next few weeks.
Reflecting on the Broken Dreams series
Today we wrapped up Broken Dreams and the series turned out to be much ‘heavier’ than any of us anticipated. I don’t think that is a bad thing, just an observation.
Abraham’s life is a study in 2 steps forward, 1 step back (sometimes more than 1 step) kind of faith. And God is both ruthless and patient with him. He’s patient in that He doesn’t choose to take away the promise. He’s ruthless in that He allows Abraham to deal with the full measure of his choices, Lot as well.
I think more of us can relate better to Abraham than any other character in the Bible for this reason. Most of our walks look exactly like this – trust, trust, not trust. Hear the voice of God then run ahead of Him to ‘help him out’ and end up messing the whole thing up worse than it was in the beginning. Having pockets in our life where we feel this huge sense of entitlement – I deserve this – only to later realize how immature and foolish that line of thinking is.
The thing about Abraham is that he finished well. The last few years of his life — from the birth of Isaac forward, we see a man who for the most part walks by faith with God. It may have took him over 100 years to get to that point – but he did.
We (Creative Team) picked up on the theme of Broken Dreams because the more we looked at Abraham’s life, we saw all these fragments of decisions in his life – Lot, his dad, his relationship with Sarah, Ishmael. These fragments were once whole pieces of a dream of a life that he and perhaps Sarah had envisioned for themselves. And like all of us – life happens and these dreams began to break.
Yet we noticed that when God was seen as a resource – the Source – something different happened. Redemption. Healing. Refocus. When they tried to fix the brokenness on their own with their own schemes, it always ended worse than when they started.
Until Isaac. By the time God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, all of that had changed. Abraham now trusted God no matter what the outcome or directive. He knew better. He had the scars to prove God’s character. So now what normal people would call broken dreams, Abraham would call opportunity for the holy.
It was a good series and one that I hope gave our congregation some insight in how to deal with the broken dreams in the own life.
Summer Sermon Series
We’ve got a full slate this summer. First up is Hostage. LifeChurch.tv originally ran this series and they have been super generous to let us some of their resources for this series. BREAK FREE from what keeps you hostage.
Starting July 11, The Truth About series will start. Ever wonder about the truth of the Bible? God? Jesus? Eternity? So have we.
Lot Rewind
Yesterday we finished Lot’s story in our series on Broken Dreams. I can honestly say it was one of the heaviest messages I’ve preached. The story is the most bizarre in scripture but the principles that it teaches are the kind that just cut to the bone.
And God intersected my life with Francis Chan’s question “Has your relationship with God changed the way you lived?” last week. I think specifically for that message.
Broken fixes to our broken dreams often end up worse than the broken dream itself.
Lukewarm living for God has the same end result as outright defiance.
Lukewarm living makes us a joke with both are “friends” and our enemies.
We all eventually get what we really want. Lot’s wife really wanted to go back to Sodom, so God gave that to her. Lot really didn’t want to go back to God or Abraham, that’s what he got as well.
When we try to ‘fix’ our broken dreams instead of waiting on God, it’s a statement of how little we trust Him and that what He has for us on the other side of the door is bigger, better, and deeper than what we have on this side.
Broken Dreams: Life of Abraham
This Easter we will dive back into the book of Genesis focusing on the life of Abraham. Easter? Abraham? Genesis? Broken dreams? How does it all fit?
If you think about it, it all fits very nicely. We’re introduced to Abram in Genesis 12 with God giving Abram His dream for his life. That his offspring would be a great nation, that God wanted to bless the whole world through this nation. That is quite a dream.
What unfolds next in Abram’s story is a series of broken expectations, promises, and dreams. Nothing seems to go the way he thought, nothing seems to be working. It’s a life of broken dreams. Some of the brokenness was self-inflicted. Some of it was God-inflicted. All of it hurt. All of it had consequences.
It’s in the aftermath of the crash that we find out what God was up to.
And that’s the journey this series will take. I’ll connect the dots to Easter on Sunday morning.
Broken Dreams Trailer
Here is the new trailer for the series we will start on Sunday. Broken Dreams…
The Death of A Series
It’s always a bitter sweet week when we switch from one series to another. And that is this week. We just finished Sacred Rituals – an idea I stole from Mark Batterson at NCC – where we looked at our (Western Hills) rituals, the ones we think are crucial to the life of our church and transformative in the life of a believer.
Communion, worship, baptism, generosity, and last Sunday was community. A few nuggets I hope continues to transform us as we move forward…
We do the “rituals” because by doing them we are not only joining something larger than us but we are being changed by Him to look more like Him.
The problem with ‘community’ is so few of us know what it is or what it looks like INSIDE the church centered on Jesus. Part of the reason for this is that most churches don’t demand it but the biggest reason is because it’s risky, it comes with bumps and bruises and so many of us don’t want to get hurt. (Get back on the bike.)
There is no Christianity in the New Testament without community. It was not possible to follow Jesus and NOT be around a table in someone’s home somewhere.
The Church exploded because of the work of the Spirit in community, around the tables. Not programs, not personalities, not buildings, not great marketing. Love, Live, and Serve in community, around the table, in the home.
Do you have a place that you could run to in the middle of the night after breaking out of jail and they would pray with you? (See Peter’s story in Acts 12.) How much would that kind of community be worth to you? Two nights a month? Two hours a week?
The Hurt Locker and Your Local Church
I watched The Hurt Locker the other night. Alone. Amy wanted no part of it. I told her it won Best Picture. She said “Exactly. Since when has that mattered?”
Good point.
But it DID win Best Picture and I can see why. The character development and story line beats any movie I’ve seen this year. The story is about a team of men who are EOD specialists. Explosive Ordinance Disposal. They defuse bombs. But that’s not the whole story.
There are two significant themes that run through out the movie. The first is the huge need of adrenaline that war creates inside these men. Each deals with it differently – one looking to die, the other looking to avoid it, and the main character embracing it, chasing after it at great risk to himself and his team.
The second theme is their need for each other. In the church we call this ‘community.’ In the Army, ‘esprit de corp’, a sense of brotherhood. This goes beyond than just needing each other for the job itself. It’s almost as if each of the soldiers by themselves weren’t complete without the others. Insert “You complete me” line here.
I’m teaching on this subject in two weeks and the struggle I’ve always had with this subject is this — how do you explain something (community) that is best explained by experiencing it?
My first experience with true community wasn’t even inside the church. It was with my college roommates and frat brothers. After college, there was the Army understanding of community. It was later that I found community inside the local church.
I’ll try to unpack this in a few weeks but here are my observations about community…
All of us seek community of some sort. We seek it because we are human and we need it. It can be centered on many things – a hobby, a job, a sport, kids, explosives, whatever — but there is this innate desire in all of us to belong to SOMETHING. Gangs are at one end of this extreme, cults at the other.
That community will change us. Not all of this is bad, not all of this good. It will change how we speak, think, act, values – the list goes on. But change us it will. What that change looks like depends on the center of that community. What is that community focused on? It’s purpose? Could be as innocent as a knitting club or as dangerous as a downtown gang – but every community has a center, a focus and it will change us.
That CENTER will change everyone who is around it. In other words, whatever community you find yourself in, you will find yourself changing to be involved, more accepted in that community. You start hanging out with a bunch of ducks, you will eventually quack. Dress, speech, values, likes, dislikes, food choices – you name it and it will be influenced by the community you find yourself in.
The church struggles with community. I was sitting at lunch with a dear friend a few weeks ago when he dropped this on me. “I’ve been in church most of my life and as my ‘community’ started talking, it was very evident that most of us have never experienced true community inside the church.” I’ve had the unfortunate experience of hearing that conversation a lot over the years.
I don’t have a great handle as to why. Too busy? Too scared? Too naive? I’m not sure how important it is to dissect the reasons why, the results of no biblical community are plain – spiritual death. How many ‘Christians’ have abandoned their faith because the depth of what they’ve experienced as Christianity is to shallow to handle the life they find themselves living.
Christianity without community is not true Christianity. And as such is unable to handle the hell that life can and will throw at us.
So what then is the solution? More to follow…
More Thoughts on Worship From Sunday
Yesterday was awesome at Western Hills. God continues to blow me away in this series – the depth and meaning of these simple rituals.
Yesterday, after the first service worship set, I could barely talk. I was supposed to ‘wrap-up’ the service with about a 8 minute spiel on worship and completely flubbed it. I was completely torqued and upset at myself after first service when one of our folks interrupted my pity party and said — “That was a home run. Simply awesome. Thanks for creating space this morning for us to connect with God.”
Which was God’s way of slapping me upside the head to remind me — “It’s reallllly, realllly, reallly, not about you. Trust me on this one. If I used a donkey to talk…well, you can figure the rest out from here.” Second service went much better after that wake up call.
2 HUGE shifts that 1st Christ-followers had to make to ‘get’ worship. First, we worship in response to God’s mercy, not to get it. Very different from other religions. Second, Worship is a living sacrifice, not just a specific encounter or moment.
A living sacrifice is when Jesus gets the last word on every one of our decisions. That’s worship. Real worship starts the moment we hit the door to leave a church service.
Some Random Thoughts Looking Ahead
We start our new series Sacred Rituals on Sunday. (Trailer here and we didn’t get 20 comments, so Rick is off the hook.)
I hope we’re able to do more than just educate about the rituals but also experience them.
I hope people reach a new level of awe and wonder with God as a result of these ‘rituals.’
I hope we (the church) never lose sight of why we do what we do. Even if it means we shake things up to help us remember.
I hope our services continue to be places of encounter and experience of the Holy, not just a ‘good show.’ The rituals help in this journey.
The ‘sacred rituals’ are sacred because of their object, not because of who can perform them. They are for ALL followers of Jesus.
Everything starts with communion. Real communion with Jesus. Worship, baptism, generosity, community — all begin with communion, not the ‘act’ of the cup and the bread but what the cup and the bread represent. That we are part of Christ…because of His act, His movement, not ours.
The Origins Posts
This has been undeniably my favorite series I have ever been a part of. The partnership with Circle of Friends, the Friday Night Artwalk, the art, the content, the stories, the worship….just the whole experience has been phenomenal.
And the journey will continue for at least a little while longer. Warehouse 414 is displaying the art until the end of the month and you can still bid on the art until February 27. All proceeds go to this incredible program – Circle of Friends that is connecting special needs teens with other students to make their high school experience a positive one.
The Story of Origins, Part 1
The Story of Origins, Part 2
Origins: Earth
Origins: Humanity
Origins: Sin
Origins: Murder
Origins: Redemption
Origins: The Nations
Origins: the Nations and How God Is Selfish
There are two things I walk away from the Origins with concerning my theology of God. First, He’s selfish. Second, He is complicated.
I admit that ‘selfish’ is a strong word but I really can’t think of a better one. In humans, this extreme focus on self is called narcissism. And let’s be honest…it never goes well. If I really lived that way all the time, got what I wanted, when I wanted it and how I wanted it…it would be as close to hell on earth as I can imagine. How many times in my life have I been thankful that I didn’t get what I want? How many times has it turned out that what I wanted and how I wanted it would have ended up killing me?
But God functions this way – wanting to be the center of our life, always and forever. He wants us to have what He wants and how He wants it. So what’s the difference? It’s obvious that the difference is that God is good…all the time. Goes back to starting our theology in Genesis 1, not Genesis 3. He’s selfish because that’s what is best for us all. Anything other than God in the center of our lives is death, mayhem. Impossible to miss that in the first 11 chapters.
It’s also impossible to miss how complicated God is at times. This is a comfort to me, honestly. Growing up hearing the simple explanations of God and His word not only left me hollow but unsatisfied. This simple understanding led to some incorrect conclusions about God. Every story in the first 11 chapters has the temptation to be understood in simple and wrong terms. “God confused the languages because humanity was becoming more like Him and He wanted to stop that.” Well…okay but is that it? I mean, really…God has a complex thinking that there is a chance we’ll evolve and His job will be in danger?
There is always more to the story, more to God’s response than just the obvious. And that’s a good thing. It means that God is deeper, truer, and larger than I am or what I can imagine. And that’s exactly the kind of God I need at my center. Not the Tin Can, “Everything Will Be Alright In The Morning” God that my youth rebelled against.
The Tower is testament to this. You can hear my full rant on this here, but suffice to say that every response of God will be more than just judgment, more than just reaction. It’s full of His protection and provision as well…even when I can’t see it at first.
The artwork is by Lisa Peterson. Every culture and language originated out of one ‘hand.’ The colors and the pageantry of all the different worlds and how the most unifying feature of any culture is its language. Modern linguists are fascinated how all the different languages have similarities to each other.
In the end, all these cultures will be reunited. They won’t lose their distinctiveness or their flavor. Their unifying feature will no longer be their language or their color, but Jesus himself. We get a glimpse of this in Acts 2. The full picture will come later. Lord, hasten the day.
Sacred Rituals Trailer
I completely stole this idea of the sermon series from Mark Batterson over at NCC. Here’s the trailer for the series we will start on February 21st. Come experience it with us.
Rick Stones said that if we got 20 comments on this post, he’ll sing a Gregorian Chant for us during the series.