Jerusalem Jerusalem

[00:00:00] One of my favorite passages in all of scripture is not the one that was just read. [00:00:08] I like it. But it's connected to one of my favorites, which is early on in God's relationship with his people. [00:00:17] So when God had a group of people, they were a group of people. [00:00:24] I don't know if you've ever been around a group of people. [00:00:27] That's what makes me laugh about conspiracy theories. You know, like, everybody's out to get. That makes me laugh because those people who believe in conspiracy theories have never been a part of a group project. [00:00:42] It would be so hard to keep all that stuff a secret. [00:00:47] It'd be so hard to, like, accomplish something nefarious. [00:00:53] I've been around groups. [00:00:57] When you have a group project in college, there's one person doing the work, the other two are helping a little. [00:01:06] There's always the one. [00:01:09] Groups are tough. Now when God says to Abraham, abraham, move. Abraham moved. There he went, look at that good faith, Abraham. But then there's a group of people, and groups of people all are tough. [00:01:25] He says to the people of Israel, I'm going to rescue you from slavery. [00:01:34] They're in Egypt. He's going to rescue them from slavery. [00:01:39] They were working all day, every day, all day, every day, mixed just tired to the bone, refusing like, they weren't even getting help. [00:01:54] It was just. They were building what the pharaoh wanted them to build. They were enslaved by the government there. [00:02:04] And God shows up and rescues them. Just amazing. One thing after another. They are like, they. They. They walk out of Israel because God put pressure on leadership through plagues. They walk out of Egypt and they walk across the Red Sea. [00:02:23] A sea parts, and they walk across on dry ground. [00:02:29] And then later they say out loud, we wish we were back in Egypt because. And listen, this is the reasoning. [00:02:40] At least back there we had potted meats, guys. A meatloaf. [00:02:49] A crock pot meatloaf made them want to return to slavery. [00:02:56] What an insane thing. [00:02:58] But I preach every Sunday. I know some of y' all are thinking about crock pot meats right now. [00:03:07] When he's done, we're gonna go home. We got that in the crock pot and we're gonna. I know it. [00:03:13] But it's not slavery you're going home to. [00:03:17] They were ready to go back to their regular because at least their regular was known. [00:03:26] And they were ready to go back to being oppressed because, you know, what a good trade. [00:03:35] The people are harder to deal with. Groups are harder to deal with. But God had a dream for this group he told them whenever he brought them out of Egypt, he told them, you, Israel, are going to be my kingdom of priests. Okay, so a priest is an easy thing to remember. So there's prophets and priests. [00:04:01] Prophets bring God to the people. [00:04:04] Priests bring people to God. [00:04:07] So prophets show up at parties and throne rooms and say, I have a word of the Lord. I have a word from the Lord. And priests welcome people into the temple and bring them into the presence of God. [00:04:20] Priests are people who welcome the outsiders into the inside, into welcome of God so that he. [00:04:30] They bring people to God. You, oh, Israel, you're going to be my kingdom. A whole kingdom of priests. That's every tribe, every person in Israel is going to be a kingdom of priests. [00:04:46] Then they get to Mount Sinai. [00:04:49] There's all sorts of complications in Mount Sinai. [00:04:53] Ten commandments and then the other commandments. [00:04:58] And so you say there's other commandments. I say, yes, Exodus 20 is the Ten Commandments. Then Exodus 21 through 31 or more. [00:05:10] And so he has. He establishes these ways of being for the people of Israel. [00:05:17] He establishes a way of being for them so that they can be a kingdom of priests. The law has a purpose, not just so that they'll have a law to follow, but if they are to be a kingdom of priests, they are to set themselves apart from the other nations. [00:05:32] A kingdom of priests to the world, we're going to look different. [00:05:39] In Exodus 32, a God who has consistently said, my people, who I brought out of Egypt, My people who I brought out of Egypt looks down and sees a golden calf that was made that they were worshiping. [00:06:04] And he looks at Moses and he says, look what your people, who you brought out of Egypt have done. [00:06:11] I am not joking. That actually happens. In Exodus 32, Moses goes down. There are consequences. [00:06:23] He says, all who are for the Lord, come to me. [00:06:30] Then the tribe of Levi shows up. [00:06:35] So now Levi has to be priests to these scoundrels when the objective earlier was all of them were to be priests to everybody. [00:06:49] God's dream, when God gets involved with groups, always seems to have to get smaller. [00:06:57] All nations and tribes and people will come to my place and worship me. [00:07:04] They will be my people and I will be their God. But all right, well, let's start with Levites. [00:07:13] Maybe we can convince Israel to worship God. [00:07:19] It's always been like that. If you read scripture, God has these big dreams and then people enter the equation and God modifies because he loves us. [00:07:31] And that's what good gods do. Good gods, that's What God does. [00:07:36] Oh, my goodness. [00:07:38] I don't believe in multiple Gods. [00:07:41] Let's just. We'll edit that. Can we edit that out of the live stream? Thank you. [00:07:48] We. [00:07:50] So God modifies. God is working with us to fulfill God's dream. God wants us, all people, all nations, all tribes to come and for him to be their God and for them to be his people. [00:08:07] And we keep failing at that. [00:08:12] What Jerusalem was supposed to be, it was supposed to be a place. The dream of God throughout the prophets was it was going to be a place where people can show up. [00:08:24] People can show up and experience God no matter who they are, no matter where they're from. That God can be their God and they can be his people. [00:08:41] He says from the very beginning when he's talking to Abraham about what Abraham's going to do, he says, through you In Genesis 12:3, through you, all nations will be blessed. All peoples. He doesn't mean like all governments throughout the world. He means all of the peoples will be blessed. Different groups through Abraham, all people will be blessed. That's the goal. [00:09:11] And Jesus is incredibly frustrated with the leadership of the people of the religious in Israel. The that they, they just aren't living that out. [00:09:24] They're washing the outside of the cup, but they're not cleaning the inside. [00:09:29] They are whitewashing tombs, but on the inside they have dead man's bones. [00:09:34] They are traveling over land and sea for a single convert, but they are making them twice the son of hell that they are. [00:09:44] They aren't doing the will of God. [00:09:49] And the will of God is for the people of God to be reaching out to and loving and bringing into like showing the world God, the God who loves us unconditionally, the God who chased after us, who sacrificed for us. [00:10:09] God wants us to reflect that into the world. [00:10:18] And when we fail, we typically fail because we're so caught up in our own stuff, in our own mess. [00:10:31] Not just our own sins, but our own preferences. [00:10:37] Sometimes it's not sin that keeps God from entering in the world. It's just human preference. [00:10:45] And then sin jumps in because selfishness loves its preference. [00:10:55] The Israel people felt, the Israelites felt very special. [00:11:02] And as soon as you start feeling like you're one of the special ones that just messes everything up because then you're on the inside and everyone else is on the outside. And you have good intentions and everyone else has bad intentions and you have the good thoughts and you do the right things. At least you try and you look out and you can see the world. And they're all wrong and doing the wrong things. And my goodness, aren't I glad that I'm in the inside and they're on the outside? [00:11:34] And preachers stand behind pulpits and talk about the sins of the world and go out. We don't want to do the ways of the world and that they are they and them and them. [00:11:45] Like the evil's out there and the holies in here. [00:11:50] When the line between good and evil runs right down the middle of every single one of us. And every day we decide whether or not we're going to live the way of Jesus or the way of selfishness. [00:12:04] But we become the special ones. [00:12:08] Aren't you glad we're the ones that are right? [00:12:11] Aren't you glad we're the ones who figured out the Bible is correct? Aren't you glad we're the ones? Oh, my goodness. And all of a sudden, you don't really start seeing Jesus, but you're just gazing at your own navel. [00:12:25] You're just staring at yourself, happy that you are how you are and that they are that you aren't how they are. And my goodness, thank God that we are we and we aren't they. [00:12:43] That's where the leaders of Jerusalem were, the religious leaders there. [00:12:52] That's where they were. [00:12:54] And this is the last thing Jesus says to them. [00:13:00] Chapters 24. This is where we've been in chapter 23 for several weeks now. And chapters 24 and 25 is a private conversation that he has with his disciples. And verse 26, they arrest him. [00:13:13] So in their world, they have this conversation with him and then they arrest him. [00:13:21] What he says to them has so much heart. [00:13:25] He's been saying, woe to you because you do this. Woe to you because you do this. Woe to you because you do this. But then he looks at them and he says, jerusalem. [00:13:34] Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones, those who are sent to it. [00:13:46] And he says, how often have I wanted to gather you up like a hen gathers its children. [00:13:59] I wanted to lead you. I've wanted to nurture you. I've wanted to grow you. But, Matt, if you'll put the Scripture up there. He says, but you weren't willing. [00:14:19] I've wanted you to be what we've wanted you to be. [00:14:27] I don't know about you, but I need God to nurture me and cover me and for me to be what God needs me to be. [00:14:37] I need God to challenge me and raise me. [00:14:43] I was raised by parents that I enjoyed being Raised by and then I became an adult and I still need God to do some more work. [00:14:57] I loved my parents. Loved my parents. [00:15:03] No one sticks the landing. [00:15:05] We all need God to grow us and mature us afterward. [00:15:12] He says, I wanted. Jesus says, I wanted to pull you in and gather you, but you were not willing. So. So look, pay attention. See, your house is left to you and it's desolate. [00:15:35] He says, I will not see you again until you say, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. This is actually exactly what they say whenever he enters the. [00:15:47] This is what they. When he's entering in the triumphant entry, this is what they say, but his desire for them to be what he wanted them to be. [00:16:03] I see parents at sporting events just rooting on their kids. [00:16:14] I was at a T ball game once. I think it was pro. It was a professional T ball I had walked. It was of. It was. It was a T ball game of a distant, like a cousin that I barely knew. And so I was completely uninterested except for the circus of it and the concession stand. [00:16:36] So I'd walked down the first base line to this concession stand and my family was sitting on the third baseline over there. And so I had gotten my whatever snow cone, fried pickles or whatever it was, and I was walking back to where they were sitting and a little girl got up to bat. [00:17:05] Tiniest little human I'd ever seen holding a weapon. [00:17:13] And she had a helmet on. That was so, you know, the stance of the kid that doesn't care about T ball. [00:17:20] It's not up, it's just she was this. [00:17:27] I'm going to rest this here and maybe something will happen. [00:17:31] So super cute. [00:17:34] Her helmet was too big that when she turned her head, she looked out that hole through the side that the helmet didn't go with her. [00:17:46] And I'm going to turn off my mic to show you what her coach and dad were doing to coach her. [00:17:54] But she was just standing at the plate the whole time. I walked from the left, from right field down to my seat, standing at her plate. And he was behind her going, hit it, hit it, hit it, hit it, hit it, hit it. Just non stop for a solid. [00:18:19] Did I blow the mic? No, I didn't. [00:18:21] Nonstop for a solid four minutes. [00:18:27] He wanted to hit her, hit it, hit her. He wanted to hit it hard to hit it so bad. [00:18:34] She cared. [00:18:36] 0 I also wondered what it was like when she wouldn't eat her vegetables if he was just eat it, eat it, eat it. [00:18:48] But like we Just want our kids to do good. [00:18:52] We want them to. Ugh. If we could just control them, oh, my goodness. Then they'd make the same mistakes we do. [00:19:01] If we could just get. Just hit it, shoot it, catch it. [00:19:10] We just. We desperately want our children to be what we want them to be. [00:19:20] And God has purpose for us. God wants us as his kingdom to represent to the world what he is. [00:19:33] I don't ever want him to say, Glenwood, Glenwood, I wanted to bring you in and nurture you and grow you, and you just wouldn't have it. [00:19:47] Because we get so. [00:19:48] If we were to get so caught up in religious regulations and rules and miss our calling, which is to show the world that they are blessed through this God, who blessed Abraham, who blessed David, who blessed Jesus, who resurrected Jesus, who walked with Paul, who. Who gave us the spirit, this God who loves them, he wants them to belong to him. [00:20:24] This God who chases after them, the world that doesn't know him, he wants them to be caught. [00:20:36] And I guarantee you some people feel like they would love to go to church, but they don't fit in. [00:20:44] And the fact that that even exists, that idea even exists, is the fact is. Is completely off course from God. Want what God wants. We are to be a kingdom of priests. We are to represent Jesus in this place, Represent God in this place through the power of the Holy Spirit. If we can be God and Jesus to the outside world, powered by the Holy Spirit, loving those who are who the world hates, loving those who struggle with hate, showing God to a world out there. We will be a kingdom of priests, nurtured and nourished and protected by a God who hopes to draw us in, to send us out. [00:21:40] But we listen to the woes of Jesus because we need to pay attention to what God wants and how we're getting in the way of that sometimes. [00:21:53] Not y' all getting in the way. [00:21:56] We are getting in the way. [00:22:03] I'll tell you, as a minister, sometimes church can feel like I'm like, got to get it right, you know, make sure the person's up there reading. [00:22:15] Trent did a wonderful job with communion, but there was a two second where I panicked and forgot who was doing communion and didn't see anybody vomiting. I'm going to have to go up there. That just. [00:22:27] I should relax, right? [00:22:29] Just relax, chill out. [00:22:31] Everything's gonna be fine. [00:22:33] Somebody will handle it. [00:22:36] We want this experience to be perfect. [00:22:40] And it's only perfect in its brokenness. [00:22:45] Not when we actually stick the landing. [00:22:48] Not when we actually get it right. [00:22:51] But when we, as an odd collective of Jesus followers, show up to the table broken, damaged, struggling, and let Jesus pull us in, that we all together say, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. [00:23:18] May the world, when they see you coming, when they see you approaching them, be able to say just the same thing. [00:23:30] Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, because we are his kingdom of priests, balked by the blood of his sacrifice, given hope by the resurrection, given power by his spirit, united by his kingship. [00:23:55] So may we not be a people of religious regulation, of traditional rules, where we just, you gotta follow this or you don't. You don't fit in. [00:24:09] But may we be people who have been shaped by this Jesus who longs to draw us in, nurture us and lift us up. [00:24:23] You know, we can't be that without our king. [00:24:33] You cannot regulate an experience with God. [00:24:43] You can't set it up and say, well, this is exactly how it goes. This is how you're supposed to live. And if we approach this, I've been shown steps of how to bring people to the Lord. Super easy, they say. [00:24:57] I've seen pamphlets. You get the pamphlet, walk through the scriptures, check off the lists. I've shown them this scripture and this scripture and this scripture. All of a sudden they jump in a Baptistry. [00:25:08] Super easy. [00:25:13] Doesn't work like that, often takes long relationships, continued demonstrations of love, continued demonstrations of concern and care and affection. [00:25:34] And then someday they'll realize you're not the good person, but Jesus is a good king. [00:25:44] And so we will know for sure that it's not us and our regulations and our rules and our order of service and our perfect Sunday morning. [00:25:59] It's God who has nurtured us, and we could not have done it without him this morning, you need Jesus. [00:26:14] The world needs Jesus. They don't need our rules. They don't need to know exactly what our doctrine is. They need Jesus. [00:26:27] And so, with all that you have to offer, your personality, your joys, your brokenness, your individual failures and successes, with all you have to offer in the world, go to the world and show them the love of Christ. [00:26:46] And you won't be able to do it unless it is the Lord who leads you that way. [00:26:55] If you need anything this morning, we have people in the back willing to pray for you. I'm down front willing to talk to you. But whatever you need this morning, please come forward while we stand and while we sing.