The Christ Journey | Share Your Gifts

With Valentine’s Day just passing a few days ago, did anyone get sentimental with their significant other? [[[Mention Ramon and Lindsey’s engagement]]]

Tonight, I want to explore the third milestone on our Christ Journey, “Share Your Gifts.” as we seek to understand how Jesus forms our identity when we place our hands to good work and our feet to a good journey!

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” As your life stands right now, are you living a daring adventure?

As a young boy, I spent hours reading “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. Do you remember those? What a brilliant concept! These books allowed the reader to choose how the main characters made decisions during significant moments. Brilliant! In middle school, I read the same book over and again choosing a different ending each time.

I actually believed back then that my life could be a 'choose your adventure' kind of life. Did you ever believe that about your life? Perhaps this could be true, but for many of us, our lives lean less toward adventure and more on the side of: security… and stability…

Now, don’t get me wrong, we need these virtues in our lives. We need some measure of security and stability to live healthy, faithful lives.

But when those virtues become the chief aim of your life, then they will become the enemy to adventure… and ultimately, the enemy to your satisfaction.

Adventure is the opposite of security and stability. It’s edgy. It’s dangerous. And too often we leave adventure at the curb because we fear what might happen with our lives if we lose control, encounter difficulty, or become seemingly disadvantaged in comparison to our friends and colleagues.

Fear is the enemy to adventure. Fear is the enemy to a satisfied life.

I think most people equate satisfaction to happiness, but it doesn’t mean that. You can find happiness with all kinds of security and stability. You can even find happiness with a donut. But happiness is fleeting. Happy is a yuppy word.

Satisfaction, however, is different. Satisfaction is that feeling you get when your wrongs have been made right and justice has been done. Satisfaction is that feeling of completeness you experience when your heart and affections sync up with your significant other. Satisfaction is that moment when you unbutton your pants after feasting over a good meal with great friends.

You know, I’ve enjoyed my most satisfying meals while serving away on mission. I've had the best curry chicken and lentils in the center of Kolkata’s red light district. I've had the best fried fish in the jungles of El Salvador. I've enjoyed the best tacos at a hut in La Mision, Mexico. And I delighted in the best Greek food in NYC with my Drive crew a couple of years back. Why were these meals so satisfying? Because my life was entirely insecure and unstable, but I knew that Jesus wanted me in that exact place for that exact moment. No fear.

Satisfaction comes with total trust and fulfillment. Security and stability can only lead you so far into trust and fulfillment, but eventually security and stability gives way to fear, if those values become your chief aim. Control is an illusion.

Yet many people still choose the secure and stable life.

What adventure will you choose? Security or satisfaction? Jesus promised you one, but not the other.

In his nine beatitudes from his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus laid the groundwork for a satisfaction pathway to experience the Kingdom of God here and now through:

Kingdom Access to salvation

Kingdom Affluence to the riches of his grace

And here now with these next two beatitudes, Kingdom Adventure, as we share our gifts and live the journey together. Jesus said:

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:9-10

Jesus announced an entirely new way of life not governed by security or stability, but characterized by peacemaking and persecution. Anyone about peacemaking and persecution on the weekend? Probably not too many of us.

Yet, Jesus called these people blessed - the peacemakers and the persecuted - not the secure and stable. He called them children of God who will inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus promised satisfaction on the adventure, but he did not promise security and stability.

In fact, Jesus disrupted the systems in our world that provide security and stability. In these beatitudes, he did not simply offer pithy wisdom sayings about how we should live our lives. Rather, Jesus flipped the script on our lives, so that we might actually find our lives and discover the kind of satisfaction that God created for us from the very beginning.

Jesus called the peacemakers and the persecuted blessed because these friends - these brothers and sisters - who go into the broken and hurting places in our world, the dangerous places in our world - chose to live an adventure with Jesus.

Peacemakers give up all of their comfort and selfish ambition to pursue Christ’s righteousness in our broken world.

Peacemakers are the everyday heroes of God’s Kingdom Adventure!!!

And Peacemakers are ordinary people just like you and me.

They’re not marvel super heroes. They don’t have halos on their heads. They're people with regular jobs just like you and me, people with families, people in school, people on the construction site, people in the business office, people driving Uber.

• Peacemakers are assistant football coaches like Aaron Feis, who bravely used his body as a shield against the spray of bullets during the attack on Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day. At least one female student recalled Feis pushing her through a doorway as he took the bullets aimed at her. The football team tweeted, “He died a hero and he will forever be in our hearts and memories,” He acted in a moment of conflict to make peace for this young lady.

• Two other 14 year old young ladies who volunteered with a special needs classroom both died helping their classmates reach safety. The made peace for with those with whom they served.

• Another 15 year young man, who served on the Jr. ROTC, was killed while holding the door open for his friends to leave. He made peace in conflict so that others could live.

You don’t need a theology degree to make peace in the world. The only difference between a peacemaker and everyone else is a peacemaker decided to live the good life - the satisfied life - by making life not about their own will or security.

At the time Jesus spoke these beatitudes, Israel was an occupied state under the ruthless 'Pax Romana' war strategy of the Roman Empire. The Romans made a big business out of conquering nations, and during the first century, business was good! They gained their power through a do a die strategy called "The Pax Romana," translated ironically as 'Roman Peace.’

Peacemaking, according to the Pax Romana, dictated that you either pledged your allegiance to Cesar and offered your unwavering loyalty to the empire, or you died. You can understand why they were so successful! Violence was their means of making peace.

Jesus, on the other hand, speaking and ministering within the Pax Romana empire, blessed a different kind of peacemaker, ones who endured persecution and spread Shalom peace, not peace through violence. This ancient Hebrew word for peace means ‘wholeness.’ Violence destroys, but Shalom restores. Shalom forgives. Shalom unites.

The shalom makers, Jesus said, are sons and daughters of God. When we do good in the world, when we make sacrifice of comfort for doing good in the world, and care well for others, we reflect the image of God’s good character on our lives, leading us to experience glimpses of Heaven on earth here and now! God designed our lives with wonderful abilities and gifts to do astounding good toward one another and creation.

When we misuse our good gifts, however, to advance our own selfish wills or make ourselves better than others, then we cease to reflect God’s good nature, but instead, reflect the nature of the evil one who seeks only to steal, kill, and destroy.

This is called sin. It is a war between the image of God marked on our heart... and our desire to live as the very gods and goddesses of our own hearts. It's a bitter and cruel war, and it is distracting us, even blinding some of us, from the very adventure upon which God designed for our lives!

Understanding the nature of sin matters because all of us live it. None of us are immune from sin, but many of us refuse to acknowledge it because of its shame and pain. We feel it when someone sins against us. We feel it when we hurt someone.

Whenever we choose sin over good, we choose to reflect our own image over the image of a good, close, loving God.

The biblical authors used many words for our translation of sin, but one Greek word in particular captured the essence of it. It's the Greek word, ‘hubris’ used by a Gospel-writer named Luke from his Book called, Acts. The word ‘hubris means, “mingled pride and cruelty; pride which makes a man defy God, and the arrogant cruelty which makes him trample on the hearts of his fellow men.” William Barclay

Hubris sin is our attempt to be equal with God, and make ourselves better than others. I see a lot of hubris in Miami traffic. But I also see a lot of hubris when I get caught up in my own selfishness. It’s like an infection in the core of our being. Sin distorts God’s good image imprinted on us, and ultimately broke the relationship that God desired with us and with one another.

We can’t rid ourselves of sin brokenness, but God can and God did! In Christ, God chose to forgive and restore our brokenness that we caused.

In saving us, God modeled for us how to make peace by choosing to forgive us rather than punishing us for sinning against him.

Thus why Jesus’ revolutionary beatitudes, the cross, and his resurrection changed the world.

In Christ, God offered forgiveness for all of those who choose God over their own hubris, and God promises us real and true satisfaction when we do.

It is done, but it is not yet complete on this side of Heaven. It is a risky adventure. Lies will continue to confront us all the time, trying to convince us that our hubris-driven lives can achieve everything we want on our own apart from God or anyone else… with our own comfort... with our own riches... and with our own security... all in tact... and shiny!

Peacemaking, however, challenges our hubris desires to make life all about us. Peacemaking takes our lives out of the security zone and into the Jesus zone where satisfaction, grace, mercy, and salvation all live!

In the literal weeks after Jesus' resurrection, the early church movement confronted the Pax Romana with peacemaking of a different kingdom. The first church began with men and women just like you and me... following the way of Jesus with their gifts and abilities... who chose to generously make peace with all people, regardless of their ethnic background, race, religious beliefs, political stances, or philosophical leanings. They chose to make Jesus peace rather than participate in Roman empire peace.

As an early church, these men and women lived in one heart and mind together. They kept a singular focus upon Jesus’ grace and mercy and how they could spread that throughout their neighborhoods and regions. They shared their gifts and resources to help one other. And they also shared meals together in their homes.

About 5 generations after Jesus’ resurrection and the beginning of the first church movement, a Greek historian named Aristides, made this objective observation of the early church movement in 125 AD, and it still applies to this day. He said this:

“They [Christians] walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not found among them, and they love one another. They do not despise widows and they don’t grieve orphans. He that has... distributes liberally to him that has not. If they see a stranger, they bring him under their roof, and rejoice over him, as if he was their own brother; for they call themselves brothers and sisters, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit and God; And if there is among them a man who was poor and needy and he has not an abundance of necessaries, they fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with the necessary food.”[i]

Peacemaking for the early church then is the same now. How do we make peace in our city?

• We help one another other.

• We listen to each other.

• We make a meal for someone in need.

• We share a meal with someone who needs company.

• We give a bag of groceries to someone.

• We give someone a ride who needs help.

• We forgive those who wrong us.

• We let someone over in traffic.

Peacemaking begins with simple acts of kindness that either prevent or end conflict, not create it. Peacemaking is love in action.

Sin distorts, but love heals. Sin breaks apart, but love binds back together. That’s the witness of every healthy, faithful, peacemaking Church and Christ follower to the kingdom adventure of Christ in our world!

Enter into the crisis. Embody the peace. Help others to share it beyond

In Christ, God entered into our crises and embodied the Shalom restoration that God wants to share with the world.

He embodied this with Christ and lives us now through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And this day, God continues to challenge the sin and evil in our world through you… through your peacemaking… through every small act of generosity shared with your gifts and abilities.

How do we do this here and now? God gave you good gifts and abilities with your time, talents, and treasures. Ask yourself, what can I do well, and how can I use my good gifts to make peace in the world?

Offer your time. Invest your time into kids who need caring adults to read to them... into middle and high school teenagers who need mentors to walk alongside of them and help them navigate the awkward transitions from childhood into adulthood… invest into young adults who need guided wisdom to become healthy, faithful men and women in our city... into ministries who need your leadership... into the elderly who need a hand to hold... into the homeless who need your care.

Offer your talents. Some of you have received good gifts for business and acquisition. Others of you for order. Others of you for healing and medical knowledge. Some of you for beauty and creativity. Use whatever good gift in your life to bring about peace to those in need... to help right the wrongs of our city and around the world... to see heaven on earth.

Offer your treasures. Perhaps the most difficult part of our life to offer is our treasures. Indeed, giving away your treasures is dangerous... to your ego…. your hubris... It’s dangerous to your security. And dare I say that it can be dangerous to your expectations of the American dream. Let me challenge you to consider releasing those expectations for God’s greater adventure. But you must choose yourself what kind of adventure you want to live? A secure Americana adventure? Or a peacemaking Jesus adventure.

Let’s Live a daring, adventurous faith with our treasures, and experience the joy of peacemaking with our resources! As you do, discover the freedom that comes with giving! As strange as that may seem, your treasures never belonged to you anyway. All good gifts come from above.

God gave us a standard by which to give your first and best 10%. It is called a tithe. The first dime of every dollar. And then an offering is anything beyond that.

How ironic that the most joy-filled, peacemaking people I know give a tithe and an offering. They chose to live a kingdom adventure, not a hubris-driven lifestyle. When life’s not about you or what you own, only then does true satisfaction begin.

Let me encourage you to give one of two ways: You can text your giving directly to our church through Text to Give: Text 1 to 1-844-326-4222.  Or you can download the Christ Journey app and give online. Nearly half our church gives either online or through text to give.

If this is entirely new to you, then jumping straight into a tithe may feel overwhelming or even impossible. Start with 2% this month, and then next month increase to 4%. Keep doing this until you reach a tithe.

Let’s begin making peace with those closest to us... with our friends and family. Stop the conflict. Quiet the arguments. Still the tension. Every time your hubris wants to fight back to guard your pride, ask yourself, am I bringing about peace and living the way of Jesus in this moment, or am I living out my own hubris ego?

Make peace with your kids. Make peace with strangers. Make peace with your supervisors, and help them find the solution rather than creating more problems.

Enter into the crisis. Embody the peace. Help others to share it beyond.

Perhaps most of all, though, make peace with yourself. The hardest person to lead is the one staring back at you in the mirror. On this great adventure, you will fail. Every hero does. Peacemaking is hard, and you will feel tempted from time to time to return to your own security and comfort. You may even feel at times ashamed because of your past failures.... and tempted to believe that Jesus won’t have you back.

But that just couldn’t be further from the truth.

Whether you just begin today, or you have been enduring on this great Kingdom adventure for years, choose to make peace no matter what challenge or persecution comes your way. Keep fighting for the kingdom. In Christ, you have been forgiven and you are qualified, so share your gifts of time, talent, and treasure with your community, city, and the world.