Radical Living Toto We're Not In Kansas Anymore

These are the numbers of the divisions of the armed troops who came to David in Hebron to turn the kingdom of Saul over to him, according to the word of the Lord… Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command. I Chron.12:23,32 Everything has a historical context History is not stagnant, but a catalyst for change within the world and within the Church History is His Story What will the church look like in the future? We must not imitate the success of others Today is ours, not yesterday Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore What tools do we have to discern the times in which we are living? Traditional Sources of Guidance Scriptural Guidance • Often the Bible is read and taught as a doctrinal and ethical cookbook for what we should believe and how we should behave. • There are over 200 denominations alone in the united States. All of which think they got it right • What if the Bible is NOT a cookbook, but a story book, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and if readers which focus only on one section will miss the entire point of the narrative? • “The Bible is fundamentally a story of a people’s journey with God.” Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens Question: Although we prefer a cookbook, why did God give us a story? A story is more powerful than a cookbook and the Bible is the BEST story ever told. “ To try and rearrange the Bible into a type of book we want is to completely ignore and miss the universal transformative power of a well told story. Stories can redeem, liberate, and transform people and societies better than any lists of laws or codes of ethics.” J. D. Myers “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” Charles “Tremendous” Jones Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings is a beautiful picture of the church ( you and me). He goes forward in weakness and smallness. Though he desires to return to the peace and tranquility of the Shire, he sets his face firmly towards the hellish fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. So also with the church. We cannot go forward in strength and power, for that would be certain defeat. Nor can we sit back in the false safety of our church buildings, even when they are as beautiful as the Shire or the House of Elrond in Rivendell. We must go forward, in humility and endurance, to certain death, all for the sake of the world. This is the way of Jesus. This is the way of the church. J D Myers James, a slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: Greetings. James 1:1 “ Like a good book or great movie, scripture changes your life, your perspective, your imagination, and your outlook whenever you read it or think about it. The Bible does not tell us what to do, it tells us what was, what is, and what can be… The story within Scripture is of mankind’s quest for God, and God’s quest to reveal Himself to mankind. Furthermore, the Bible shows us what people believed about God and thought God wanted from them. Ultimately, God revealed Himself to the world through the person and work of Jesus Christ… Scripture describes not what we must do today, but what has been done in the past as people tried to follow God in spreading His message, His rule, and His reign.” J D. Myers Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jn.14:6 “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Jn.12:23-26 The Bible is God’s Story in Six Acts I Creation II Fall III Israel IV Jesus V Acts (We are currently living in the middle of Acts) VI The New Heaven and Earth We study the Scriptures, not so we can copy them “scene by scene”, but so that we can learn the plotline, major characters, conflict and climax and how the story come to a resolution. And then we contextualize ourselves into the play/timeline we are in For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14 Finding the balance between being in the world, but not of it “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Mt.5:13-16 James, a slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: Greetings. James 1:1 “Conspiritorial Prayer” and the Holy Spirit But we must recognize that prayer is not only how God listens to us, but also how we learn to listen to our own hearts. It is through prayer that we often learn what God wants us to do, where God wants us to serve, and whom God wants us to love… The Spirit’s voice is more like the still small voice of God which is most often mistaken for our very own thoughts. We learn such things, not just so we can pray about them, but so that we can open our eyes, unfold our hands, get up off our knees, and go out and love and serve those people whom we have prayed about. Counsel from other Christians Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another Prov.27:17 “But let me provide a warning. As we seek to gain wise counsel and guidance from other Christians, we must be on guard against copying other Christians. While Jesus will lead many of us down similar roads, He will also lead different people and different churches down completely unique and diverse roads that have never before been travelled.” J.D. Myers “We must say that the church has a center, Jesus Christ, but it has no circumference… Our God is a God of beginnings. There is no redundancy or circularity. Thus, if His church wants to be faithful to His revelation, it will be completely mobile, fluid, renascent, bubbling, creative, inventive, adventurous, and imaginative. It will never be perennial, and can never be organized or institutionalized.” Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity Cultural Guidance The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Jn.3:8 “When gospel-related themes about justice, peace, and equality are raised in the various elements of culture, the church should suspect that these issues did not rise solely out of the hearts and minds of unregenerate people, but were created by the gentle breezes of the Spirit upon all people in our society. They often hear what the church does not. Yet there is one thing that the culture will not include in their calls for justice, peace, and equality which only the church can provide: the centrality of Jesus and the example of the cross.” “Though discernment is required, the church can get cues as to what God is doing in the world by watching and learning from our culture. And when we see what God is doing, we can join with culture in standing against war, hunger, and other forms of inhumanity, by infusing such stands with the principles of the gospel and the example of Jesus Christ. If we think that all culture is evil, we will always be on the wrong side of what the Spirit is trying to do in society and in culture.” J D Myers So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. Jn.5:19-20 The Gospel is not an escape plan, but an infiltration plan. We are called to the kingdom for such a time as this to display the beauty of Jesus Christ, the King and His kingdom Do you speak for Christ? Must not all who speak for Christ constantly ask themselves these crucial questions: • Does the gospel I preach and teach have a natural tendency to cause people who hear it to become full-time students of Jesus? • Would those who believe it become his apprentices as a natural “next step”? • What can we reasonably expect would result from people actually believing the substance of my message? Dallas Willard