Hillside Foursquare Church

FLIPPED #9 - You have 2 choices...

After having spent the last several months reading, studying, & now teaching through the Sermon on the Mount, I have drawn a couple of conclusions for myself that I don’t think I had before (or at least hadn’t identified.)

In this passage of Scripture, Christ defines exactly what it means to be His disciples:

• in how we relate to & obey God & His commandments.
• In establishing our priorities & values from which we live our lives.
• in how we worship Him, not merely with our outward actions, but from the bottom of our hearts, with all that we have.
• In how we interact with & care for other people.

Matthew 7 concludes with Jesus telling His disciples they have 2 choices: follow Him & walk in His ways, on His terms, or do anything else. He does this comparing:

• 2 gates, the narrow and the wide. The narrow gate leads to life; the wide to destruction.
• 2 types of trees, good & diseased, the good, which produces good fruit, the diseased which brings forth bad fruit.
• 2 types of disciples – the ones He knows (those who do the will of the Father,) & those He doesn’t know, regardless of what they think they’ve done in His Name.
• 2 foundations – Rock & sand, with the foundation of rock representing the person who hears & puts into practice His words; sand is the life foundation of the person who has heard His words, yet ignores them.

To me, the entirety of Matthew 5-7 can be summed up in Matthew 7:13,14 – the only way to experience God’s life & purpose is to enter through the narrow gate (Jesus) & to walk the hard road of obedience to God’s word, humbly choosing to do His will over our own. After re-reading this over & over, what stands out to me is that I cannot “self-define” where & how I will be Christ’s disciple. He’s already done that, & my choice is to embrace that & start walking with Him, or to choose the lesser (& easier) wide gate through which I can do what I’d like, how I like it… sifting through Christ’s commands & picking up those that are palatable, while leaving behind those that I deem are not.

Following Christ is hard – Jesus said it would be, because it involves denying our own selfish ambition, picking up Jesus’ way, & moving forward WITH Him.

FLIPPED #8 - Don't be a judger...?

“Judge not, that you not be judged. ”

When Jesus made the statement quoted above, what did He mean?  The following verses give us much clearer understanding – they say, in essence:

“In the same way & with the same measure you judge others, you will be judged. Before you try to take the speck of sawdust out of someone else’s eye, take the 2x4 out of your own.

Jesus challenges His disciples not to take a harsh, critical, nitpicking attitude towards others, especially if they haven’t first examined themselves to address & repent from the sin, wrong attitudes, & behaviors in their own lives.  And if the time comes to address an issue of wrong in someone else’s life, it has to be done in a manner that reflects Christ: with great love, compassion, humility, & mercy.

Something else that can help us get what Jesus meant when He said, “Don’t judge” is a better understanding of what “passing judgment” means: Passing judgment involves making a final pronouncement of “guilty” on another individual/group - think: a judge in a courtroom smashing his gavel down while saying “GUILTY”. In that situation, it’s over. It’s done.  All that’s left is the sentencing.  That role, ultimately, belongs to God (see Revelation 20) & “Judgment Day” isn’t here yet – now is the time for healing, restoration & salvation (2Corinthians 6).  So, if  we pass judgment on someone, we are, in essence, writing them off as hopeless cases. That’s not how God sees them (or us).

 

FLIPPED #7 - Jesus on $Money$

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenged those that wanted to follow Him to recognize that God’s peoples’ priorities, values, thought processes, & actions run completely counter to those of the prevailing culture. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the passage we’ll be exploring this week, Matthew 6:19-34.
 
Here’s what I mean. The desire to acquire MORE – money, possessions, & stuff is a part of the human condition. From the time we’re toddlers we learn that MORE is better. Jesus, however, encouraged His disciples to consider a new type of value system. He said:
 
“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
 
In essence, He is reminding His followers to remember that we’re living in a different way by different values – rather than investing ourselves in acquiring treasure here on earth, treasure we could only have temporarily – by following His example & applying His way of thinking/acting, we can do something that will have an eternal impact.
 
I’m challenged to continually review my own priorities & values (especially in this area) & to ask the Holy Spirit to help me discern where I’m on/off track so that I can realign myself with Jesus’ way.
 
Blessings, grace & peace to you-

FLIPPED #6 - Jesus & the hypocrites...

Have you ever heard this (or a version of it)? “Hypocrites. I don’t go to church because of the hypocrites. You know, the people who say they’re Christians, but who don’t live it out.”  I don’t buy that definition - to me any follower of Christ could then be called a hypocrite, because even though we don’t want to sin, to do wrong, &/or miss the mark, we DO. That doesn’t make us hypocrites, it makes us humans in process. And rather than beat ourselves up over our failures, the response of a Christ-follower is to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, repent (turn from our wrong thinking & actions & turn to God) & relentlessly continue our relationship with God, through Christ, confident that we’re forgiven & He’s at work in our lives.

So what is a hypocrite? In Jesus’ day, the word “hypocrite” meant “actor; one who plays a role in the theater.” In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus called the religious leaders hypocrites, because their very loud & very public displays of devotion to God were merely an attempt to draw attention to themselves & make other people think they were “all that” – pious, devoted followers of God.

The religious hypocrites made sure EVERYONE knew when they were giving to a charity or making a donation to help a person in need. They’d actually have someone blow a trumpet as they gave in a way of saying “Hey! Look at me! I’m Awesome!.”

Their prayers were long & loud, delivered eloquently in public, with many flowery, spiritual sounding words. When they fasted (going without food for a predetermined period of time,) they made sure EVERYONE knew it by putting ashes on their heads, wearing a burlap sack, & wandering around with pained, hungry looks on their faces. The message their actions & words put forward was, “this is what it looks like to be spiritual.”  And all the while, they were secretly plotting Christ’s death.

So what DOES it look like to be spiritual? What kind of instructions did Christ give His followers about giving, prayer, & fasting? This week in our FLIPPED series, we’ll be talking about this & more. I’m looking forward to it!

FLIPPED: The heart of the matter

One of the many challenging declarations Jesus made in the Sermon on the Mount comes from Matthew 5:43-48. It’s the passage where He tells His disciples & the crowds, “You’ve heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbor & hate your enemy. But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies, & pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in Heaven.”

Love your enemies? Pray for people who persecute you? How?

Something that has helped me to understand & try to live this out was discovering the Greek word for love that Jesus used in this passage was “agape” – roughly translated, it would be “to welcome, to love dearly, & unconditionally.” Doesn’t necessarily make it easier to DO, but it sure gives a picture of what it looks like: extending love & care to all people, without strings.

When we do this, we exhibit a primary Christ-like trait that comes from being in the family of God. Loving like this reflects God’s own love, & points to Him as our own source of love & life. 

Plus, like Jesus said, if we only love our friends, people that love us &/or those that are lovable, how Godly is that? Even people who don’t know God & don’t have a clue about His ways do that. (Matthew 5:46,47). 

This command wasn’t just talk for Jesus either – He lived it out His whole life, culminating on the cross when He looked at the crowds around Him, yelling, cursing, & spitting at Him. Calling Him names. Blaspheming His Father. And Jesus’ response to this hatred & persecution, as He hung dying on the cross? A prayer: “Father forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.”

That is loving your enemies, Jesus-style.

 

Blessings, grace, & peace to you

FLIPPED #4 - The Heart of the Matter

When I was younger, I equated much of Christianity & my relationship with God to “the Rules:” things I was supposed to do, & things I was NOT supposed to do. If I followed “the Rules,” I was doing good with God, & if I didn’t, well, I was doing bad.  Over time, I got pretty good at keeping “the Rules” & if I would admit it, I was pretty proud of myself. Why? I’m glad you asked.
 
Because I was good at keeping the Rules I measured myself against other peoples’ abilities at Rule keeping… & , to me, it seemed like most people weren’t as good at me at keeping the Rules. Which made me a ‘better’ Christian. Just about every aspect of my life reflected the fact that I was religious. Went to church & youth group (rarely missed.) I was known for my good behavior.
 
Except I was mean to people. Judgmental. Arrogant. Unfriendly. I could go on…
 
My life didn’t reflect Christlikeness – the “God-family traits” that show up in His kids were glaringly absent from most of my interpersonal interactions. I was well on my way to becoming a Pharisee: great at keeping ‘the Rules” while at the same time completely missing the heart of the matter.
 
The point of following Christ is to become LIKE Christ in how we think, how we act, & how we interact with each other & the rest of the world. It means digging deep into Scripture to allow it to be planted deep in our hearts so that the Holy Spirit can work to apply it & transform our hearts & minds from being selfish, self-focused, self-righteous people to being people who reflect Christ’s love, mercy, compassion, & justice.

FLIPPED #3 - A City On A Hill

Several times in the Gospels, Jesus declared Himself to be the light of the world… He usually made this declaration as He was interacting with the Pharisees/other religious leaders, or to the curious crowds that followed Him around, wondering what He was going to do next.
 
But to His disciples, those pledged to follow Him, learn, & become like Him, He said the following:  YOU are the light of the world – a city set on a hill cannot be hidden…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works & give glory to your Father who is in heaven…
 
With those words, Christ declared one of the core identifiers that would mark His followers – we are LIGHT in a dark world. Meaning, we’re here on earth, created in His image, to do good in His Name. As a result, people notice, & give glory to God our Father.
 
When we first came to Reno, these verses were at the forefront of what we believed our mission (& the mission of our church) was supposed to be. These verses are the inspiration of the name of our church, Hillside.
 
Our church community is dedicated to being LIGHT, & to living as a city on a hill overlooking Reno/Sparks, doing what Jesus would be doing if He were walking in our shoes every day.
 
Let's let our lights shine today. 

FLIPPED #2 - Lessons from the Sermon on the Mount

You know those spiritual gift ‘tests’ that you can take to find out what gifts you ‘have’ & what gifts of the Holy Spirit you are exempt from displaying? (Here’s an example of one: http://bit.ly/1xDYRBo ). Well, I used to love taking those tests & discovering at the end that I had ‘scored’ high in certain areas like discernment, teaching, & pastor … & that I had scored ‘low’ (read: not on the charts at all) in mercy. Because, hey, I’m a firstborn & I am a ‘consequences’ person. You get what you put in, & don’t expect me to make it easier on you. Mercy was for the Mother Teresa’s of the world – I was more concerned with ‘justice.’ As long as it didn’t apply to me. When it came to me, I wanted mercy. For others? Justice. As I saw justice appropriately meted out.

Looking back, I feel silly because I was almost SMUG about my results being low in mercy… as though mercy was something that weak people displayed, while people like me (The Firstborn Justice Mafia) served to keep life in balance & compensate for the Mercy People.

One day, I was reading through Matthew 5, & the verse at the top of the page hit me in the heart like a ton of bricks.

The merciful receive a blessing, & receive mercy from God.

Because God is merciful. And He wants mercy above good works. (Matthew 9:13)

And my petty, fleshy-human nature is exposed for what it is. Self-serving. Egotistical. Proud.

I am cut to the heart – I do a word study in Scripture on mercy. Bad idea, if I want to keep my worldview as is. God is merciful. Compassionate. Slow to anger. Rich in love. And His people have His tendencies. And I have not embraced mercy. And I’ve used stupid tests to validate my own twisted sense of justice. And I am unmade.

Mercy extended. Brings mercy to me. Lord, help my unbelief. Transform this heart.

FLIPPED #1 - Lessons from the Sermon on the Mount

God’s people awaited their Messiah (the Anointed One) for thousands of years. Prophecies declared that He would be of the Israelite tribe of Judah, a direct descendent of King David the giant-killer. Among His titles would be King of kings & Lord of lords, the Sun of Righteousness, Wonderful, Counselor, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The Old/First Testament prophets declared that the government would “rest upon His shoulders.”
 
Its no wonder that Israel was looking for a conquering king who would come with great military & political might to overthrow the Roman Empire & take His rightful spot on the throne in Jerusalem.  Except…  When Jesus arrived on the scene, it was with great humility. He was (seemingly) a nobody from a nowhere town. He wasn’t interested in challenging Rome or seeking power or personal glory. The Jewish religious leaders didn’t know what to make of Him… but crowds of people swarmed after Him to hear Him speaking with great authority, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven, healing the sick, & bringing deliverance to the oppressed. Jesus & His message flew in the face of everything that the people of the world expected from a king…
 
This Sunday, we’re starting a series called “FLIPPED: Lessons from the Sermon on the Mount.” We’ll be exploring Christ’s messages in the Gospel of Matthew chapters 5-7, & we’ll be looking at how the message of the good news is flipped  in comparison to the prevailing culture, values, & pursuits of our world, & also how we can actively & intentionally be disciples (fully devoted followers) of Christ.

Psalms of Lament... for when life hurts.

We’ve heard it said, “God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.”
 
Is He?
 
What about when our life experiences collide with our faith in a way that is seemingly contradictory to that declaration?
 
Disappointment. Disaster. Loss. Pain. Rejection. Suffering. Death.
 
What happens then? How do we process through those things, when it seems our faith in God & belief in Him is confronted with the tough stuff?
 
For thousands of years, God’s people have been using the book of Psalms as a ‘songbook’ for life – meaning, they actually sang & declared the Psalms in both obedience to God, and as a way of working through life circumstances beyond their understanding.
 
The book of Psalms in the Bible is made up of 150 chapters written by King David, Solomon, a poet named Asaph, & a musical group called, “The Sons of Korah.” In bible days, Psalms was a was 5 songbooks included in one volume. Here are some examples of the themes of the Psalms:

• Psalms of Thanksgiving – acknowledging God’s character, goodness, & provision
• Psalms of Lament – 68 Psalms dedicated to crying out to God in times of great suffering, loss, abandonment & death
• Psalms of Ascent 120-134 (to be sung as Jewish pilgrims returned to Jerusalem during the 3 main annual feasts)
• Psalms for public worship (tied to specific festivals & celebrations)
• Psalms for celebrating wisdom/God’s law

 
The Psalms of Lament provided an avenue for processing through “life’s DOWNs” – the language in them is often negative, questioning God, wondering where He is & why He’s (seemingly) not acting on the behalf of His people.
 
Personally, I have found that praying the Psalms has been very helpful to me in working through life’s junk –  & they have been a springboard to prayer: real, honest, yelling at the heavens prayer. And the great thing is, God can take anything we dish out - & still be RIGHT there with us, supporting, sustaining, & carrying us through the “valley of the shadow of death” to the other side.