The Christ Journey | You Were Made for Connecting

Welcome to Christ Journey Church from wherever you may be joining us today, at our gables campus, with our brothers and sisters at our Kendall campus, or somewhere on this great planet through church online, I greet you today with the love of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement after the birth of our son, Jacob a few weeks ago...

Today marks the second message in our series, "The Christ Journey, Your Personal Pathway to Blessing," as we seek to discover the blessings that flow from our love and obedience to Jesus Christ.

This week, the second milestone on our journey toward Christ-centered living is how we grow together in family, as we desire to make Jesus first in our life.

In a fascinating commentary about the family, the Washington Post published an article in January 2018 on the latest trends of online dating among 20 and 30 something’s. Researchers discovered a dating no-no: Asking for a last name.

According to the young men and women they interviewed, giving their last name exposes them to an entire wealth of information about them based on Google searches and social media. Consequently, many withhold it from their partners in order to safeguard their true identity in favor for a carefully curated one.

One 26 year old young man said, “Asking for a last name is definitely a modern social cue that trust is building in a relationship.”

Relationships are less clear than ever before

They face all sorts of challenges, especially within the ever expanding technological advancements of the 21st century.

I understand why many of these young men and women keep their last name until an appropriate level of trust builds. We can learn much and come to passive judgments about each other in just a .3 second Google search.

Your last name is a signifier to your family heritage and place of belonging, and that for many of us is also complicated.

Need us not forget that 42% of all children grow up in a family without the father present in the home. For some of you here today, along with many others in our city, the word family means fear, abandonment, and shame.

Yet, the family is exactly where God entered into our world... to establish his blessing of peace and redemption.

This counters many of the popular beliefs held by many in our culture who state the exact opposite. Many people believe that God is distant and unconcerned about the cares of the world, ready to strike us down, and rule with fear.

Jesus’ Beatitudes from his Sermon on the Mount, however, proclaim an entirely different narrative than the popular one today driving the beliefs of so many people, especially young people, in our city.

This second milestone on our Christ Journey represents God uniting us together in family, not opposing us from afar.

In my family, we keep 5 values posted on our living room wall. They order our living together as a family. Think of Jesus’ beatitudes in the same way. His beatitudes order our living together as family within God’s kingdom, and they invite us to receive God’s blessing. Today, I want to discuss the second set of 3 beatitudes with you.

Hear today Jesus’ words from Matthew 5:6-8:

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God.

Now, let me ask you: did Jesus get these wrong?

Listen to them again:

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness often take that hunger unsatisfied to the grave... And the merciful are rarely shown mercy in return.

Some read these beatitudes as simple, pithy wisdom sayings about the world made by a wise, Yoda-like figure.

In his beatitudes, Jesus began a revolution.

Jesus made a good news announcement about the dawn of a new age: one in which the power structures of the world would be flipped upside down - where the ‘last shall be first and the first shall be last’ is the central ethic in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus changed everything about everything with nine statements. And here’s how he did it...

On that very day when Jesus gave his sermon, Israel was an occupied state under the cruel authority of Rome. Many Jewish leaders believed they threatened Israel’s way of life, so in reaction against their overwhelming influence, a sect of religious leaders called the Pharisees rose to prominence among the Jewish people with one goal: to purify the Jewish faith from all outside forces through an intensified observance of the Jewish law.

Their radical Puritan mindset was thought to help usher in the anticipated Messiah, who they believed, would return Israel to its rightful independence as the supreme seat of power in the world.

Centuries earlier, Israel once shined brighter than all other nations. They had power, authority, wealth. The Old Testament letters record how God led Israel from a group of slaves into becoming one of the most powerful nations in history. Their disobedience against God and each other, however, eventually led them from prosperity into exile and losing their status as a world power, which they never regained.

More than 400 years after losing their authority and becoming an occupied state in their own land, their worldview still cling with white-knuckles onto their hunger for power and control… power and control… power and control… power and control… and the future day when their Messiah would save them from their enemy and restore their power.

In the weeks and months leading up to Jesus’ sermon, he traveled from city to city, healing the sick and teaching with authority. As you can imagine, crowds of amazed people began to follow him in response. Many of them wondered: could he really be the long-awaited Messiah who would return Israel to its glory and power?

Indeed, Jesus was the Messiah for which they longed! But the good news that he announced was not Israel’s return to power... but rather, How to live upside down from the power structures of this world... and right side up with God.

Jesus' Beatitudes revolutionized how every human being naturally thinks about life and the self. Jesus tipped the entire world power structure on its head, reorienting God’s blessing from the people who make it about their own power and control to those who

Hunger and thirst for Righteousness

Show Mercy

And Live Pure in Heart

To Hunger and thirst for Righteousness, Show Mercy, And Live Pure in Heart bears witness to the Holy Spirit living and inside of you.

Our natural default setting tends to lean away from these virtues and toward our own power and control.

Jesus hit the reboot on our default setting and exposed the lie that all of us believe at some point in our lives: that it’s about us… our power… our desire to live like the god of our own lives. Jesus tipped the whole world upside down.

I think all of us would agree that in general people want to live full lives, be shown mercy, and see God to experience something beyond themselves. God created us to experience the richness of life. That’s not the issue. Satisfaction is promise from God for those who follow him. The issue is how we go about ordering our lives to experience satisfaction. God created us for relationship, good works, and creativity. Issues arise, however, when we seek these good things in our personal name, rather than God’s.

God created you to use your hands and mind to build healthy, strong, and productive businesses with firm ethics, to create beauty that inspires, and to bring about order into our communities. God designed the world for this purpose.

Things become distorted when we make them to achieve our own gain. Only then do you miss the presence of God with you as you use your hands and mind for good things. Ultimately, this turns your good work upside down from how God intended to use it.

These upside down power behaviors mask God’s kingdom - and at times, even silences it altogether from your life - covering your eyes and your ears to Christ’s glory and power. God’s Kingdom doesn’t go away. God doesn’t go away or increase his distance from you. You just don’t notice it.

A while back, I saw one of my all time favorite bands after years of wanting to see them in concert. My best friend and I went together, we grabbed burritos beforehand, arrived at our seats early, but just before the band came out, I put on my noise canceling headphones. I literally couldn’t hear a sound, and I missed the whole show.

Obviously, I am kidding! But living your life apart from God is like that. The music is happening all around you, but you choose not to hear it because you’ve made your life all about you. If God feels distant to you today, then try taking your Kingdom-canceling headphones off, and listen for the rhythm of God’s kingdom:

By hungering and thirsting for righteousness... showing mercy... and living pure in heart.

Jesus inaugurated a new way, fulfilling what God started long ago and now calls all of those who follow him to boldly choose a beatitude-driven lifestyle - seeking kingdom rhythms - choose that lifestyle over the wider road of power… ego… and control. Only then, may we experience the fullness of God’s kingdom alive in our world here and now together, as we

Hunger and thirst for Righteousness

Show Mercy

And live Pure in Heart

Blessed are those people, Jesus said, because they know the great open secret:

It’s not about you. It’s about Jesus.

God is fully alive here and now with us. He is not distant and apart from us. God is up close and personal with you. God is closer than you could ever know. As close as your heart is in your chest.

These beatitudes align our vision with Christ and his kingdom.

But I also need to mention here: The evil done in this world results when we forsake the Beatitudes and choose our own sin brokenness apart from God.

Did you know that God never desired for our lives to encounter evil? Quite the opposite: God desired to walk in the coolness of the night with you and be your God.

From Genesis 3:5 when humanity broke relationship with God through this very day, God has been seeking to redeem and restore you and our broken world back to rights. In Christ, it is done, but not yet fully realized on this side of heaven.

Thus, evil may still touch our lives from time to time. Our world still yearns for final redemption. But in those moments when evil shows its face, God promised those who seek him - he promised this - that he will

fill them…

show them mercy…

and let them see him.

Always.

This is the foundation for the second milestone of your Christ Journey. And on this foundation, God established his church for us to experience life together in family.

God created the family for blessing: Gen 1:28

God chose a family through which to bless the world. Gen 12:2

Now, God calls all of those who follow his son, "no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.” Ephesians 2:19

In Christ, God entered into a covenant relationship with the world through the familial association of men and women sharing life together as brothers and sisters in Christ within the community of the local church.

I think this is both awesome... and terrifying... all at the same time, right?!

God designed the church community as family so that we may all live right side up for the kingdom of God.

We need each other. We need each other’s companionship, accountability, encouragement, strength, and responsibility! God purposefully designed the family to foster this kind of love.

But it’s risky. No other institution draws us out of our carefully curated identities more than our families. Like many of you, I’ve experienced firsthand what kind of harm can be done in a family. But I’ve also experienced God’s redemptive grace from within the church as family.

This second milestone of the Christ Journey names our desire as a church to fight for this vision of community in the same way that you would fight for your biological family and give yourself up for them.

In my family, we have a set of 5 values posted on our living room wall. They order our living together as a family. Think of Jesus’ beatitudes in the same way. Jesus’ beatitudes order our living together as family within God’s kingdom.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled…

Sometimes, this beatitude is misinterpreted as hungering for your own righteousness, which none of us can attain on our own. Other times, this beatitude also gets misconstrued as hungering for perfection. That also misses the point.

Righteousness does not mean perfection. Jesus is perfection. Righteousness means being justified and right-standing. It means squared up.

Jesus says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness. God is the object of righteousness. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness. for they will be filled by God’s salvation grace and seen as right-standing, not sinful and broken, in the eyes of God.

Seek and you shall find. Jesus promises it.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy…

We’ve all been born into the family of the flawed. As we hunger for God’s righteousness, only then may we show mercy and not give others what they really, really deserve… because we now understand that in Christ, we did not get what we really, really deserved.

A couple of years ago, my wife showed me this beatitude in action. Just after we welcomed our second child, Levi, we went through a tough season. We had just moved to Miami, uprooted from all of our friends back West, started a new ministry, and now needed to adjust to a whole new way of being a family.

I was stressed, and on one vulnerable day in particular, I said something I immediately regretted. I caused hurt and pain, but I didn’t think I did anything wrong. Some days later, after I came to my senses, I realized that I needed to apologize. I revisited the conversation with her, but before I could seek forgiveness, she showed mercy to me and said, “I’ve already forgiven you.”

Her merciful forgiveness on me that night changed everything for me. I dropped my funk, saw my wife as my partner, not my opponent, and got my head and heart right with Jesus. 4 words did that. Mercy did that. Mercy is an action, and it to my thick ego demonstrated once again that it’s not about me. It’s all about Jesus.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God…

The term ‘pure' derives from the Greek word ‘katharoi,' which literally means unalloyed or without mixture. In other words, purity means ’singularity.' Here, Jesus tells us those with a singularity of heart focused upon God without any additional mixture will see God.

What’s got your attention?

Researchers in 2015 discovered that the average human attention span decreased from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2015. Most biologists believe that goldfish can hold attention for 9 seconds. Ha!

What’s got your attention? What’s gotten mixed into your life that has distracted your attention from Jesus?

Recently, my daughter, Hannah, wants to cook with us in the kitchen... all the time. The other day, I let her pour applesauce into her bowl and tap the cinnamon. After I explained the process, she said, “Daddy, let me do it by myself.” She opened the cinnamon container lid, and SHOOK IT like a polaroid picture - filling the whole kitchen with cinnamon dust. We had to get down on our hands and knees and put a wet towel around our faces.

We tasted cinnamon in everything for the next couple of days. :) What’s gotten mixed into your life that has distracted your attention from Jesus? He calls for a singularity of focus. Put away the cinnamon, and make Jesus your attention.

Within your Christ Journey, the most appropriate context in which to apply your faith and call upon Jesus as Lord is through small groups.

We seek to do life together in family through small groups. The truth is: the moment you go about life on our own, that’s the moment your life becomes only about you…. and then you will actually miss it. If your life is about you, then, you will miss it.

There’s only one way to counter this me-focused lifestyle, and it’s twofold. This is my only application point: You need to get other people around you, and then be that person for someone else.

Take the action step in your Christ Journey to join a group. It’s imperfect, yes, but it’s good. Last fall, my wife and I joined a group made up of other couples with young children. Quickly, we became friends with them and formed a bond that encouraged all of us to keep making Jesus first in our lives, pursuing his ethic, and maintaining the unity of our families through the bond of peace.

We laugh together. We cry together. We eat together… which is very important! And through it all, each one of them has embodied for me, as I hope I’ve embodied for them, the very hope… and forgiveness… and grace… and redemption… and salvation… that is ours in Christ!

This happened not because I am a Pastor. Far from it! It happened because we made a conscientious decision to do life together with other brothers and sisters from the Body of Christ as family.

[[[Invite everyone to stand]]]

Look around this room… every person in this room… in this city… and around our world… who calls Jesus Lord is a brother and a sister. You are a brother or a sister to every person in this room.

What if we lived our lives in such a way that proclaimed Jesus first in our family through how we provided for each other… prayed for one another… honored each other… created space for each other’s differences… and forgive one another just as in Christ, God forgave you.

A theologian once said, "Christianity is a resurrection religion, a life lived by the power of God." John Stott, Christ in Conflict

The power of God creates life… life in community… life in family. Let me encourage you, brothers and sisters, to create life everywhere with how you relate… work… act… speak… serve… play… receive… and even think… with others.

Your greatest witness in this city will be how you live your life by the power of God in family together as brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s the greatest witness of the church to the city!

And in so doing, we get to experience together the affluence of the Kingdom, the riches of God’s grace!

[[[invite everyone to sit]]]

Jesus is the wealth of the journey. Jesus is the righteousness for which you hunger, the mercy for which you long, and the purity for which you seek. If people walk away from God because they think he’s distant, and his followers are hypocritical… if fear is the underlying current of our culture, then here, Jesus says,

“I am the way, the truth, and the life."

In Christ, God closed the distance… all the way. God’s forgiveness created enough safety for us to finally admit, yes, I am not in control. I do need help. I do have fear. And yes, I need Jesus’ rescue.

God envisions the church as one where failure flows into forgiveness… fear into courage… hurt into healing.

Would you pray with me?