God Moved Out of the Temple Why Are We Still Packing for It?
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This particular series, I've been actually waiting for years for God to give us the green light on this, because we've never taught into this irresistible. It's a journey that we went on as a church, as a leadership, to actually become an irresistible church. But it's time for it to go out beyond that space.
So I was actually really taken when Nara sang, and she encouraged us to sit and approach as a little child with Jesus. So what I wanna say to you, as you've been on a journey, and we all come from different p- parts of, ideas and concepts about faith and different lifestyles and all that kind of stuff, is when you hear some of the things I'm gonna say today, I want you to be c- rather than react, because that's what we tend to do, but just be curious.
Just be curious about, say, "Oh, that's interesting, and I'll just stay on the journey and see where this thing lands." Okay? 'Cause the concept of irresistible is a very big concept to get back to, and it requires a process. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not really good at letting go of things. I just, I ca- I kinda...
I get attached to things. I get attached to people. And so therefore, when it, when I have to get rid of them, it's like, "Oh, this is really hard. This is really difficult." And I know that my wife and Anita and India in our household, they found this girl called Marie Kondo. And I don't know if you know her.
If you don't don't follow her, because you won't like her. But she's one of these minimalists, and she wants you to give away all the stuff out of your house when you bring something new in, and be grateful for it and be kind to it and thank it and pass it along. And I get it, okay. That's a great kind of thing.
But I just struggle with letting go, particularly things that's got some sentimental value. Like, when I got married, my, my m- This is gonna sound really strange, but my m- mother-in-law and father-in-law didn't really like me. I don't know why. I... So you know why. Okay. So what I did was, I thought, I really gotta stick it to these people, because I've g- married the daughter, but I've gotta do something that I know will really, 'cause they're very religious people, that really they won't like.
So I got a going away outfit, a hot pink going away outfit, and it had the effect, but it's still sitting in my cupboard. And so I have this, this pink suit there, which reality is I'm never gonna be able to get back into. No way in the world I'm ever gonna get back into it, because that's what I looked like back then.
But I just, it's got this kind of attachment to it. I just don't wanna let it go. Ann bought me a new pair of shoes. They're really nice. They're lovely. She put these things on. I hate them. I walk around, I hate them. They feel bad. They hurt my feet. I- they're not comfortable, so I put my old ones back on.
And I just, I struggle with letting go. And now maybe it's just me, I don't know, but maybe you've got some items, maybe you've got tucked away somewhere, for when you lose that 10 or 15 kilo that you're carrying. Maybe some of you have bought a new sofa for your living room. Oh, it's so wonderful, look at that.
And the old one, where is it? I didn't really get rid of it. I pushed it into another room, and it's still sitting over there because it's got memory attached to it. I can't let go of it. And then you find there's a smaller TV in there that used to be in the living room, but now you've got a bigger one.
But you couldn't let go of the older one, so it's just, it gets relocated. And we have this thing about us. My dad was driving me nuts. After he passed away, we were looking at some of his garages and things like that. He has kept every nail, every screw, every fastener. Anything that came from everywhere is in a bottle.
And you know you have to have it because you might need it someday. So there's something in us that there are memories, and there's attachment to it, and it's emotional, and it's kind, sometimes it's hard to let go. Now, some of us have been educated over the years growing up about the church and some, been educated about what the Bible's all about.
And I wanna encourage you, you've got some things in there that may not be accurate. Maybe your mom and dad didn't have all the facts. Maybe they weren't quite up to speed on things. Maybe people told you stuff that wasn't accurate, and maybe you're gonna be faced with letting go of some things. Because here's the deal: people that live in a house, 'cause you're one of those people, and you've lived there a long time, 20 or so years.
Every drawer is full. Every cupboard is full. Every corner is full with something in it that you haven't touched for years. You haven't touched it for years. In fact, you didn't even know it was there. And you just keep sitting in it and sitting in it because it's easier to keep it than it is to let it go
'Cause letting go requires change. Now people will live in that forever and ever, and they think it's no big deal, it's no big deal, but then something had- happens. A lot ... Something happens in life, an event takes place, and you find that you have to move out And you have to downsize The only way downsize works, it never works when you're eating.
You're never downsizing, it's always upsizing. But you suddenly have this, and you have to downsize, and you've got this little, small place, and you've gotta figure out what stays and what goes. Because if you try and reloca- relocate it all inside, it's gonna be a problem. It's gonna be a problem for you.
So you've got decisions you gotta fa- you gotta make. Now, some of you might be like Marie Kondo. "Man, I'm just taking the essentials." So you get out of there, and you go into the new place, and the new place looks absolutely beautiful. It's sparse, it's full, it's empty, it's open, it's inviting to people. It's wonderful.
You can have guests over. This is just the best thing. That's you. But then there are others, like maybe me and others, that are like no, you're gonna figure out how to put all that stuff out of the old thing back into the new thing." And so you stuff it in every corner, every area. And then after a while, it's like you, you can't even have guests anymore.
You can't have guests over. It's like there's nowhere for them to sit. The only one that's happy is the dog. He's however, this how it was over here, this is the way it is here. It's just tighter." This is what we do, and we bring it all inside. And then what happens is you've got no room to be hospitable to people.
And then the people that actually want to come over after a while, they go, "Oh man, this person's a hoarder. This is bad." And then they don't wanna even be around you. And so it starts to affect your health and affect your social status. It's incredible. Now, why is this important? Because for a long time, God lived in a big house.
It's called a temple. He lived in a big house. He didn't really wanna live in a big house. That was another... But that's a topic for another day. So He'd agreed to move into this house, and this house was huge, and it was massive. And it was filled with all sorts of wonderful things. The Ten Commandments were in there.
Aaron's rod, the bud, was in there. 613 laws were in there. The sacrifices, the feasts, the priests, the rituals. It was all given by God in this big house, and it was all good But over time, his people became unfaithful to him and their hearts drifted from him. And then over time, all those good things that he put in, they twisted and they used them as leverage against people.
They actually weaponized their religion to control and manipulate people. Jesus turns up on the scene and he's angry. He's angry at what's going on. He gets in there and throws everything out. He doesn't tear it down. He leaves that for a bit later on. But he just tears it all down. He says, "This is it." And he starts talking.
He starts talking about a new way. Think, "What are you talking about, Jesus?" "There's gonna be this new way. It's this new way. I'm gonna launch this new thing. You're not gonna be able to get to it till after my death, burial, and resurrection, but I'm keep telling you, there's something new that's coming." And the message that He was sending to them whole time is, "My Father is done living in buildings.
There's something new coming. I'm done with that. That's limited. You think that's big? That's limited." He said He's done with that, and what He's decided to do is He's gonna start moving into smaller buildings, really small buildings, small, agile buildings And that'll become his new address everywhere. Now, if you wanna know what those buildings look like, just turn your head to the left and the right Paul said when it comes to this, God's not working in buildings.
He says, "You are now the temple of the Holy Spirit." You are where God is going to dwell. His new building is you, and it's more like a tabernacle because it's mobile now, and he can go everywhere, anywhere he wants. So the new address that he is, he's taking place in is these little small buildings of individuals that will come out of the religious establishment and follow this new way.
Now, the tension is Look how big you are, and look how big that is. And all the stuff in that was for that You gotta try and figure out what comes into the small. What do I br- I can't bring it all in. What do I bring in? What should be put in? What should be left out? And this tension arises 'cause you're standing in this small space now that God dwells in.
This is His new address to do what He wants to do in the suburb where you are, and you're faced with the same dilemma as we have in the natural. Oh, I gotta let some stuff go. And if you don't let it go, and you try and smuggle everything that was wonderful in there into here, your house will get cluttered, and it will not feel very nice.
Might even make you sick because there's too much in there Might make you start to feel a little distant to people. People might not wanna be around you because you feel, you just feel messy. You just... Because the stuff in there was for there, not for here. Remember? Be curious. Be curious about where this is going.
So this is the exact journey that we went on as a leadership. How do you live in the way of Jesus Christ unencumbered by the religious tradition that was weaponized under the Old Covenant? How do you do that? How do you walk into that? And then how do you also, with the other hand, stop the empire from bringing in all the corporate and business practices?
That's the thing that makes the church so resistible, makes people not like us. So that was a massive journey that we went on, and you can read about it. You can re- you can watch a movie sorry, watch a a message called Under the Hood, which shares a little bit more of the context of how God did that, 10 words over 10 years.
We had to discover some things. God wasn't wanting to build something big. He was actually getting us to look at what was going on and say, "What are you smuggling in? What are you smuggling in out of the Old Covenant into the new way that shouldn't go in there?" Is that your phone? Me. Hang on. We just got a call for Pauline.
Hang on, everyone. Can you just tell them we're a little busy, Pauline, and and I- She's my daughter. Oh, she's your daughter, is it? That's funny. So what I wanted to say with that is the fact that we gotta figure out, you can't smuggle this stuff in. If you bring this stuff in, it's gonna be a problem.
You're not gonna feel right. Have you ever met some religious people that on Sunday they sound so holier than thou, and then you hear the way they speak to their kids, it's like, "Holy cow, what is that?" Or the way they treat their staff. What you've got there is someone that's trying to follow The Way, but brought some things in out of the old house that shouldn't be in there.
It's a part that's not happened, and that's not been renewed. So then what you gotta do is, you gotta try and figure out what comes in and what doesn't come in. And that's hard, because as I said to you, we all have history, we all have people that have told us certain things about this book, told us certain things about the church, may have told us all sorts of things.
And if you watch YouTube, you get all sorts of things. Nobody knows what they're talking about. So how do you figure it out? The answer is, you can't do it within yourself. Which is why the importance of actually surrendering your life to Christ. Because it says prior to surrendering your life to Christ, you sit in darkness, you can't see anything.
But then the light and life of Christ comes in, and God puts His Spirit within you. You can now discern right from wrong. You can discern what should be in the house from what shouldn't be in the house. So at the same time that God, you surrender your life to Christ, He puts His Spirit within you. Now, here's where I'm gonna take you a little bit of a different direction.
The Holy Spirit within you is now your customs officer. He's gonna be your customs officer. And this is the way you understand between what should and shouldn't come out of the old house into the new, is everything gets stacked up and put up against the teachings of Jesus as outworked by the apostles.
And then the Holy Spirit, when you stack it up against that then you will either give it two signs. You'll get a passport of entry, or you will get access denied, and you need to let it go. This is gonna be the irresistible journey that we're gonna go on, and we're gonna let you see what we had to process as leaders.
How to get back to what did Jesus start, and what's it look like in the 21st century? To live out of a place of love, unencumbered by the religious traditions that got weaponized by the law to control or manipulate people, and just follow Jesus' one command, "Love one another the way that I've loved you."
And do you know, not many people like that command? 'Cause it's difficult. You could say it's so easy. No 613 laws, just one, 'Love one another the way I've loved you.'" Try using that to go after your enemy when you don't like them. It doesn't work. There's nowhere to go. It was a brilliant system. So much more simple than the temple, but so much more incredibly difficult to live.
So here's what we're gonna do, 'cause there's a question in the back of your mind right now that's sitting there, and that's the question that we all had, and we had to work through it all as leaders. Is it really okay to let all that old stuff go? Now, some of you in here, I can see some of you have come to faith in Christ with us.
So you've grown up in here not even being en- encumbered by that, which is absolutely awesome. Absolutely awesome. But you're gonna have to be patient with some of us who still have a bunch of things that we've smuggled in that are hurting us personally, or hurting families, or hurting the people in our world, that the Holy Spirit, the customs officer, is trying to get in there and say, "You know what?
That shouldn't be in here. Let's get that out." Now, don't get me wrong, the law was brilliant for its time and its place for ancient Israel. It's not brilliant in the 21st century, which is why Jesus did something different. He started a new way. Not another religion. Judaism was up here, pagan nations up here, all the religions fighting, then eventually Islam comes and joins the mix.
Jesus steps out and said, "This is a new way." It's a way to live, and it's relationship, not fighting about denominations. Now, history now has shown that now Christianity's up there and having a fight with everybody else, and the way's hard to see anymore. But we're trying to get back to the way that Jesus started.
So all I'm gonna do now is gonna walk you through a whole bunch of scripture so you can, in your mind, can make the decision, "Huh, is this okay to let go of? Can I actually let this go?" Because we've been taught so much stuff that sometimes is driving us and making us very resistible to people when we shouldn't be.
We should be the most attractive people in the world, because God resides in us. He res- resides in us. So we started on Galatians chapter 5. This was the very first word for the year that we had, and it was the word "freedom." And basically, the whole thing has been about this. 10 different words to basically keep reinforcing this freedom.
So this is what it says: "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free." Keep in mind, he's talking to Jews predominantly at this time. Gentiles aren't in. "It's for freedom Christ has set you free. Stand firm then. Do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery." The yoke of slavery he's talking about is the law.
It's the old covenant law. He's saying, "You found freedom in Christ," and you... If you read this with open mind when you script, you'll see Paul's going after this all the time. What are you doing? You're starting in the Spirit, now you wanna go back and do that again? He's saying, "You have to stand firm in this freedom in Christ, and don't let yourself get burdened again by it."
Which means they'd started to come into the way, and then they were starting to reach back into the old house and bring some of the stuff in. And Paul's trying to say, "Don't do that. You will yoke yourself." Now, the term yoke, if you've ever seen a yoke on this picture of a couple oxen here, the idea of the yoke was to fix something on these animals to make them do what you want them to do, where you want them to go, and at a pace that you want them to go.
That was the whole purpose of it. That same yoke word is the same one that Paul uses when he refers to the teachers of the law. He says, "They put a yoke." They yoke you to this so that you have the full weight of the law there, so you have to keep every command, every regulation, every requirement in order to stay in good stead with God.
That was the purpose of it. It was enforced obligation to religious duty to earn God's favor. Refors- reforced ob- forced obligation to do this in order to be right with God. That's the whole tone of the law. The law was, "If you do this, you get blessed. If you don't do this, I'll curse you." That was the whole tone of the law for ancient Israel, but it was for ancient Israel.
Now, for some of you, let's just talk about the Bible for a few minutes. You think this is a book. It's not a book. It's actually a library of ancient documents 66 ancient manuscripts written over a 1,500-year period, 40 authors on a few different continents, and it is amazing. The first part is for ancient Israel.
From Genesis to Malachi was for ancient Israel. God forming Israel as a nation to deal with the horrible, horrific, human rights violating pagan nations of their day. They were given this to raise up a standard, and it was brilliant. But this was an exclusive contract covenant between Israel and God. The second part, here, this is where you come in.
This is where everyone plays. This one is the way for all people Not only has God decided He's not using the temple, He's not using nations anymore. He said, "I will pull my people into the way out of all nations, all tribes, and all tongues." It's kinda suddenly, it's an all-scape. Everybody is allowed in. So that law that was given was brilliant.
It was given to Moses in the ancient world. People lived better under it. Children fared better. Women feel better. It, the poor feel better. It was, there was justice for people and protection for people and the most vulnerable, and it was absolutely amazing, the standard. It was so good But when you read that through our 21st century humanitarian lens, it looks barbaric And then you've gotta try and defend it.
Why? It was never for us. It was never for you. There's another one for you Yeah, it's over there again.
Maybe never. Have you got something you wanna say? Like- This isn't possible. It is possible. It's technology. It's definitely possible. You're taking it with you? You're taking your bat and ball and going this time?
I have no idea what I was saying.
Speaker 2: Barbaric. Barbaric. Looks very barbaric.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. Sorry, it looks barbaric to us because we look at it through our lens and people go, "Oh, but look at that. God did this here." It was in the pre-BCs and the pagan. Every- it was everyone. This was standard military warfare.
Everybody did this. God just entered the mess, played by the rules of the day, and raised up a standard, and it was brilliant, absolutely brilliant, but not from our point of view. No, people don't think that from us. So He wants us to help us understand every time you lean back into something and you pull it in, if you're not careful, you will yoke yourself.
You'll yoke yourself to something, and that's not helpful. Let's read on through Galatians. It's chapter five. Now, Paul's been really upset about this a lot because he's just con- continually having this fight. "Stop bringing this old stuff back into the new house." So anyway, now this is how he starts it.
"Mark my words." So he's obviously getting a little bit... Have we got that up there? "Mark my words. I, Paul, tell you, if you let yourself be circumcised," that was one of the conditions under the law. It actually goes back to another covenant with Abraham, but once again, got weaponized in there. "If you let yourselves be circumcised," what's this?
"Christ will be of no value to you at all." Paul's saying, "You let one, you bring one piece of this in, Christ of no value." And in case you think he's finished, keep going. Next slide. "Again, I declare to you, every man who lets himself be circumcised, that he is obligated to obey the whole law." The thing about the law is it's an all or nothing deal.
You don't get to cherry pick. You- he's saying, "You bring one part in, God will go, 'Okay, so Christ of no value to you. You don't want your salvation by justified by faith, that's okay. I'll now hold you accountable to the whole law.' You have to do the whole law." And by the way, all of Israel failed, they couldn't do it.
But good luck with that. And then he goes on a bit further. He says, "You who are trying to be justified by the law have been" what? What does he say? "Alienated from Christ. You have fallen away from grace."
All because they just brought one bit of the law in, Paul? Yeah. He's saying, "It's just, this is an all or nothing deal. It was a contract with Israel. It's not for you. You don't get to cherry pick on that." Going stealing from there to go for you is no different to Adam and Eve stealing from a tree they weren't supposed to have.
They were told not to do it. This is not for you. This is for, this is not for you, this is for the Jews. So basically, this, He's basically told you, "If you allow one piece in, Christ will be of no value. And if you allow one piece in, you're gonna end up alienated from Christ, and you'll fall away from grace."
Now, I know that opens up the whole thing, once saved, always saved. Don't get hung up on that at the moment. I'm not, don't know whether it means that. But it, falling away from grace is not a good thing. You don't want that. You don't want that at all. Now, I just wanna pause just for a second, just let you talk a bit about religion.
Some people get really, think "Oh religion's good, religion's bad." Religion is great. James talked about it. He says, "Religion, but the religion that God expects," grace says, "God my Father accepts is pure, and it's faultless, and it's to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
You know what? A lot of the Western Church has got the first part But not the being polluted by the world. We've allowed way too much in. Too much stuff of the world coming inside there, too much of the old law stuff, and we end up looking ugly. So religion is wonderful. Jesus practiced it. We practice it, but it's healthy.
The problem was for the law is that the corrupt leaders of the temples and things like that, they weaponized religion, and they made it a way of how you can earn your way into relationship with God. There were rituals and things that they had to do, but that's how you could earn your way back and you'll be right with God.
Unless, of course, you had lots of money. And then if you had lots of money, you didn't have to worry about any of that stuff, just give us your money, because that's how it worked. People don't know this, but the temple was a very profitable and corrupt exercise. Long... that's the only reason why Rome and the temple got hooked together.
It's like they were joined at the hip. Jesus was a common enemy against the both of them. Both of them. So but when religion failed, God made a way. That's the way, and the way's in Christ. Jesus didn't come bring you another rule book. He didn't say here's another big thing for you to do." Nothing to do with that at all.
He said, "Here's the gift of eternal life that you can have if you'll stop trying to fix yourself and all your brokenness, surrender your life to me, let the Holy Spirit come in and conform you to the image of Christ." It's a relationship. It's a relationship. Here's what I've watched, and this is why I think God is doing this right now, what He's doing now, is I've watched over the last 20 years, and I've seen people that have espoused things whether in their families or in their businesses or in their churches or whatever.
Grace grace. It's all about grace. It's all about grace. But then you go and look at how they operate, and it feels more like the temple. Feels more like, "Hey, this building, this is the holy place. Don't touch anything. Don't do anything. Don't mark anything. This is the holy place. This is where God dwells.
You're not allowed to have f- food and drinks in the auditorium. You're not allowed to just-" Where are you getting that from? God's in- interested in the relationship, not the building. But we'd never do that at home. Or would we? I wonder if my mum's watching. This could be interesting. We built a house in Tannum Marra, and we built up market on the house.
It's like, "We're gonna have a formal dining room." And so we built this formal dining room, and had this beautiful table in there, and this crockery that only ever came out if formal people came over. And don't go in there, don't mess... It was like the shrine. But then we realized one day, we're not formal people.
We don't know any formal people, and there's no formal people likely to come home, so let's get rid of it. It's a waste of space. That's a mindset. See, that's a whole mindset that leans back to the building is really important. Now, I know you- none of you women would do this, but maybe it's only my house.
Someone's coming over, "Oh, clean the pool, clean the house, clean the walls, clean the flo- clean the dog." Why? They're coming over to see us. They're not coming over to see the dog, but y- what I'm trying to help you see is this is how much that mindset becomes and just feeds its way in. We... I have people sometimes come here, they go, "Oh, man.
Why don't you do something about these kids running around here? Rah." I said, "The old people love the young ones running around." I said, "This is not a religious place. This is a place for people to have community." And they love seeing the young ones, and the young ones love seeing them.
Sometimes I watch them looking up and they're amazed 'cause they haven't seen a grandparent before. God's more interested in what's inside and the relational thing, not what's going on the, in the building. The other couple of things that slip in there that I've noticed is the attendance and scorecards.
You can, even can do this as parents. You don't mean to do it. It's like, "How'd you do at... Oh, B. Geez. Oh. If you get an A next time, I'll buy you an iPad You're educating them to the fact that, hey, it's, we're keeping score here. If I score high, I get loved. If I don't score high, I get lost.
So it's part of the tone of that, that tone of reward and things like that. I would say don't... still encourage your kids to get better grades, but don't tie things to it, to reward. Titles become the thing. Man, you gotta get... I see people, "Man, I gotta get a job." What sort of job? What do you love to do?"
"Oh, it's not about what I love to do, it's what makes the most money." Why would you go and start a job that you're gonna hate just to make money? You'll be miserable and no one will wanna come over anyway. "Oh but that's the way I've told. My dad said I've gotta get numbers, and I get letters after my name."
It's oh, really? Okay. I... D- we don't mean to do it, but that's what our parents taught us. That's what we bring in, and that's what goes down. And then we use command and control, where Jesus says, "Hey, pick up a towel. Serve. Love." A home with devoid of love and just controlled by rules is an exact replica of the temple.
You just don't know it. Some of that tone has smuggled in there. I've had to apologize to our family on a couple of occasions where I've been doing things, and I've said, "Oh, my goodness. What am I doing? I'm reaching into Moses. Leave it alone. It's not for you." Had to apologize. I actually did it, I actually did it when we were doing the whole thing about moving around to become an irresistible church.
I said, "People need to read their devotions every day." So I f- I put this thing on there, "Every day you need to daily be in your devotions. You need to weekly be in your village. You need to come every Sunday." And it's and they're all great things, and I think they should come as often as you want.
But I wrote the whole thing up, and I gave it to everyone, and they printed it up all nice. And the Lord said, "You're not sending that out." And I go, "Why? Don't you want them to do these things?" Yeah, but I want them to do them if they want to do them, not because you tell them to do them. And we had to quantify and go back and change things to say, "Hey, we say regularly be in your sub-devotions, or regularly connect in your community village."
Because it's so easy to slip back into a legal system that's there. New Testament church didn't operate like that. The people of the Way were just, they just didn't do that stuff. And every time they brought something in, brought the old couch in here, it started to look ugly. It started to look cluttered.
And Paul and all the guys there, they worked so hard to keep that out. But eventually, of course, the apostles died, 'cause they didn't live forever. Not in this life anyway. Afterwards. And they died, and as soon as they died, all of the old Moses gang, they made very quick s- space of putting it all back together.
Let's slip it all back together 'cause we were all playing there together, and they wouldn't let it go. We have to let things go. It's okay to let things go. We operate by family values. God had to challenge us on our personal culture that we had inherited from our friends and families and previous churches and all that kind of thing.
He says, "Let that go. Focus on kingdom culture." We had to get rid of our clergy mindset, which was tied directly to the Aaronic priesthood, where the priest does everything and you're just the slaves. No. At our church, everyone plays. It's the priesthood of all belie- believers. We all give, we all serve, we all love, we all care, we all own this thing together.
That's the tone of The Way. Everyone plays. It's spirit-led leadership. Pick up a towel and surf. Love on someone. Do something. Not trying to command. And I hear it all the time, where suddenly things get a bit tense in somewhere and someone will, I can't control the situation," so they either reach to corporate practices to try and control it, or they'll go back into the law, 'cause there's some very nice stuff in there that you can do to just...
I particularly like the one I used to really like when people didn't like what I had to say, "Be careful. I'm the Lord's anointed. If I'm the Lord's anointed, man, you start striking the Lord's anointed, the Lord's gonna get you." You'd be surprised how many leaders still have that mindset. I tried to get to visit a recen- leader recently, and they wouldn't let me in.
He's way too up in the... Couldn't go, can't visit him at all. I said, "Okay. He did ask me to come." "No, we're not even gonna go and tell him." "Oh, okay." But because I look like this, and didn't look like them in their high-pouch suits and pointy shoes, they wouldn't let me in. So I just said, "Please tell the pastor that I did try and get in, but I couldn't get past you goons."
I didn't hear back from the pastor. Actually didn't hear back from anyone
We've gotta be so careful on this. We've gotta be so careful of it. We stopped calling the building the church, 'cause you're the church. Amen. You're the places where God lives. You're the mobile address that He goes wherever He wants to go. That is how the kingdom advances, and this is way bigger than the temple.
People go, "Oh, it's, no, we get smaller. We want big stuff." No. He left that because that is so inefficient and so big and cumbersome. Now He said, "I'm just gonna operate directly in everyone by relationship." That's how the church exploded over the first century. Just exploded
I think there's enough that Paul is saying that we can go if... i'm not telling you have to do anything. No one gets ha- you have to do anything around here. But I think there's enough in there that I think Paul's encouraging us to say you can let this go." Let's just look at one more p- portion of scripture out of Hebrews chapter 8, and then we'll wind it up with this.
It says, "But in fact, the ministry Jesus has received is superior to theirs." Now, he's been having a conversation with them about the temple and how wonderful it is and Moses and that kind of thing. So he's saying, "It's more superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is the mediator is superior to the old one."
So basically, he's saying, "Moses was your guy, temple was your place, law was your thing. I'm here now, and I've got a different way That's okay. We can go somewhere different. Let's move on
Okay, now we'll leave that there. I'm gonna read something from here first. So after he says that, this is what he says. It goes on and says, "For if there'd been nothing wrong with the first covenant Nothing wrong with the first covenant? Did one person in your Bible just say there's something wrong with part of your Bible?
Listen to this. No place would've been sought for another
So one person just said there's something wrong with part of your Bible Now, this is where the tension is. You might say Paul's wrong." Here's the bad news. If Paul's wrong, there's still something wrong with the idea Bible I don't think he's wrong. Let me read on a little bit more from here.
It says, "But God found fault with the people." The problem actually wasn't with the law. The law was brilliant, but it was too high. Nobody could attain it, so God found fault with the people. So when he says, "There's something wrong with it," it's too good. No one can live up to it. That was the problem. They couldn't achieve it.
So then he goes on, "This time, the time is coming," he says, declares the Lord, "when I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant and they turned away from me," declares the Lord.
"This is the covenant I'll make with them." He says, "I'll put my laws in their minds." Oh, this is different. The law was written down in tablets and scrolls in the temple. So the law's gonna be in their minds and on their hearts. Okay, so this is the new house. "I'll be their God, they'll be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man brother saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they'll all know me from the least to the greatest.
And I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more." Now, let's come to this part. The next part out of this says this: "By calling this new covenant new," sorry, "calling this covenant new, He's made the first one" say it with me. Obsolete. What? Did one author of your Bible just say three-quarters of your Bible is obsolete?
It's obsolete. Now, obsolete doesn't mean of no value. If I take a... if I say I wanna go from a, a flight to LA, but I'm gonna go through Sydney. I catch a plane from here to Sydney, right? And then I get off the plane, and I catch another plane from there to LA. Doesn't make the first plane obsolete, doesn't mean it gets thrown away.
It's obsolete to me. Because why? Because I'm on a, on the next destination. The law w- was a, was for a season, a means to an end that Israel had and ran through until Jesus got here, and now Jesus is saying, "It's time to get off the plane. There is a new way to run now." So then go on, but this gets better.
And what is obsolete and outdated. He says outdated as well. Now, the word obsolete, in case you're wondering what that means, it means, it actually means in the original text, to bring to a designated end. And it says, "It will soon-
Soon disappeared. The expectation was for them that the law would disappear for this new way in Christ That's amazing It's absolutely amazing. There was nothing wrong with the first covenant. It was brilliant for what it had to do. It was absolutely brilliant. But it was for Israel, for a time to raise up a stand against the pagan nations till Christ came here.
And like the guardian he's not our guardian anymore. He's now... we're now following Jesus. We're in the new covenant. Now, one other quick thing. I know I'm going way late, but one other quick thing I want you to realize, and so- some people don't get this. Nobody was running around in the first century going, "The Bible says this, the Bible says that, the Bible says this."
Nobody was doing that 'cause there was no Bible. The Bible did not come around till 3, about 350 AD. All they had was the teachings, the letters of the apostles that were passed from church to church and community to community, and it grew exponentially. It grew so exponentially. It was amazing Nobody was saying that.
And I wanna just, I wanna say to you, in the time that we live now, we should drop that vocabulary from our speech altogether. Do not say, "The Bible says," because you will walk directly into a fight and directly into a trap. Because you say, "The Bible says," and I used to say this as a pastor all the time, "The Bible says this."
And everyone would go, "Oh, wonderful, Pastor." But that was at a time when nobody else knew what the Bible said, 'cause very few people were actually reading their Bibles. Today, the whole world knows exactly what the Bible says. And so when you come out and sprout off something and say, "The Bible says this, love your enemies.'"
"Oh, yeah, but I know the Bible also says, 'David, go down there and kill all the men, women, and Ju- children.'" Equivalent of genocide. What are you gonna do with that? What we should do is talk about the authors. Because the the reality is the Bible never said anything really. Moses said some stuff, Jeremiah said some stuff, Ezekiel said some stuff, the disciples said some stuff.
Put the tag on who said it. "Jesus said this," "Paul said this." The minute you go, "The Bible says this," they know. There are apps out there now where they got... People in the congregations have more knowledge than the pastors. They know everything about what the Bible says, good, bad, and the ugly. So out of a wisdom point of view, I'm saying to you, just don't walk into that trap, because then you end up in a fight, and nobody ever gets debated into the kingdom.
Just let it go. But say, "Hey, listen, Paul said this out of the teachings of Jesus. You might wanna consider that." It was so messy in the 1st century, incredibly so messy, because you've got the, you've got the Jews coming out into the way, you've got the pagans coming out into the way, and it's a mess, and Paul's trying to sort this mess out, and the Jews think that all their baggage from the temple should come in onto the Gentiles, and the Gentiles have all this other experience coming in, and it's t- it was just a mess that Paul's trying to get through.
But he's continually saying, "That's gotta go out and that's gotta go out. Focus on Jesus." It caused so much problem in the 1st century. In fact, did you know the first missionaries that went out from Jerusalem went out following Paul to correct Paul's theology?
Paul's going and telling them it's Jesus, and it's Jesus plus nothing. And they're coming around behind him going, "No, it's Jesus plus circumcision, maybe new moon Sabbaths. I don't know, maybe some dietary requirements."
And you know what Jesus said about their missions? He said, "You go to the other side of the world to make a convert, and you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are." How would you like that said about your mission program? These guys aren't pulling any punches. And when it came to the church, when it came to this, there, there was massive fights going on.
They do have to do this, and they don't, and they don't." Had to go to the Jerusalem Council, and the guys had to make a decision in Jerusalem. How much of this Old Covenant is binding on the church, these Gentile people? Here's the response they got back: "It seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit to not burden you with anything beyond these requirements.
You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols," so there's a dietary and idolatry, "from blood, and from meat strangled," that's dietary kind of things, "and from sexual immorality." And do you know how he finishes this? It's the funniest thing. I think see if he's gone, but it's the funniest thing that he says, "And you would do well to avoid these things.
Farewell." That's how it finishes. Farewell. They said the Gentiles are not under obligation to any of that. They landed on the fact, we tried to live that, it doesn't work. Why would we go and put it on these guys coming in? But he did put some constraints on here. Do you know why? Because those things there are more about keeping the peace than keeping the law.
The Gentiles are coming in, these pagan nations are coming in, the Jews are coming in. They've got their baggage, they've got their baggage. Now, you have a dynamic that's going on in there where Paul's trying to help them. You need to be brothers and sisters in Christ. You've all got to be one on this.
The pagans came in, and the pagans and the Gentiles had a very extravagant and flamboyant appetite when it came to food and sex. The Jews came in with heavily dietary restrictions on them, very tight, and a very conservative view on sexuality, its purposes. And Paul knew, which is why he's saying to us, "These people, these beautiful people, my brothers, are trying to get in here.
If you don't tone this down, they're not gonna, they're not gonna e-embrace. They're not gonna come in because it's too much." The only thing more important than their law their laws was their dietary laws. They wouldn't eat with people that didn't eat the same way. So you have to make sure that we don't do anything that just hinders.
So the mixing and the matching of the old covenants is what makes us look resistible, makes us look ugly It makes us look ugly. And it happens on a relationship level, a family level, a business level. It happens everywhere you're trying to adopt something in. Now, just to make sure you, we're clear on this, I'm the, I hold the same opinion of this as Jesus did.
I hold it in high regard. It's all inspired. It's all inerrant. It's all authoritative. It's just not all applicable to all people. Some is for ancient Israel, for God to actually prepare the way for us. Some is for the rest of us. One is to found a military nation, the other one is to birth a spiritual family of the way, and that's what God is asking of us.
And that's what we've all gotta deal with. The Holy Spirit wants to be the customs officer. Let Him come, let Him speak to you and say, "Man, have I let some things slip in here from the old house that really shouldn't be here, that's hurting, that's not, it's hurting and not helping?" And maybe it's time to consider maybe I should let that go.
As I said, I don't force anybody to do anything around here. And I said, "I want you to approach this seas- this series with the innocence of a child. Just be curious about it. Go looking. Study for yourself." More and more you look into it, the more you f- discover it's okay to let go and just sit at Jesus' feet.
Sit at Jesus' feet. Allow the Holy Spirit to go through and say, "Hey, listen, that really shouldn't be here. That's from a bygone era. That shouldn't be here." When you... And every time you're thinking about bringing something in, then pass it through Him. Access denied or access received. Some people go how do I know theologically what to bring in and through like that?"
Who's the author of the Bible? The Holy Spirit. He inspired all the writers of the Old Covenant, and He inspired all the writers of the New Covenant. And as you read the New Covenant, there are sections of the Old Covenant that's in there. He's already done the sorting for you. But as you're reading, and as we're doing our self-devotion, that you might come up with all that wild, old, wild idea.
That's okay. Just pass it through the customs officer. Make sure that you're not bringing something in that's gonna harm rather than heal. This is gonna be a absolutely great journey because what we did as the leadership, God is now bringing right down to every single one of us, so that we all become the address, that God carries God's presence everywhere that we go, so that we become irresistible, so people see us and go, "Man, those people, I love 'em.
I don't understand 'em, but I love 'em. I love what God's doing." Let me pray. Father, we just thank you for the opportunity to be together. And I understand why you waited so long for this series to get it to the point where you wanted to now bring the grapples and the struggles that we did as the leadership down into a home and heart level.
And Father, I pray for us all that we would acknowledge that the Holy Spirit within us, He's the gatekeeper. He keeps us safe. He's the one that makes sure that everything is okay. So Lord, let us go on the journey with open hearts, open minds. As Nara shared, let's go with the view of a little child, just trying to see, Lord, maybe we can s- learn some things we need to relearn, and maybe some things we can let go of that'll make us more irresistible to a world that's hurting and desperately trying to see you.
And the only way they're gonna see you, is if they see you in us. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.