CMLC 2025-02-16 Sermon (Contemporary)

Howdy. Well, I had a chance to spend a few days in Phoenix. I was there Thursday

through Saturday through yesterday and had a chance to learn from some

different speakers. I had a chance to talk on Saturday morning about community

development being used for outreach. It was a great time. Had a really good

time with it. But one of the things about it was that people were learning

different things and sharing ideas with each other. And one of the ideas that

came up was that every congregation has a parallel metaphor that you can see in

movies and TV shows. Or what is it that you can say that whenever you see a show

and it reminds you of the people at your church and one of the people there

said my church is like the island of misfit toys. Do y'all remember that like

okay it was like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer? I don't know were they still

showing it whenever you were growing up? Was it still a thing? Okay, got it. Do

they do they show Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer when y'all were? Yeah, okay, okay,

good. All right, good. It wasn't just because it was good. Yeah, it was there.

Okay, good. Yeah, CBS I think it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And with it was that

Rudolph, you know, he had this glowing nose, right? And as he was doing that,

it's like Santa was really, really annoyed at him. I'm like man Santa's a

jerk. What in the world? And then with it is that Rudolph, he feels like a misfit.

He doesn't fit. So he's running away and eventually there's like a

bum noble snowman in there somewhere, but he ends up on this island with all

these toys that are all misfits. They don't fit quite right. And there were

a bunch of them that I remember especially. There was the Charlie in the box.

Okay, everything, you know, the same as normal, except his name was Charlie

instead of Jack, you know. Or there was a cowboy riding an ostrich, you know, not

a horse. I mean granted my dad had some ostriches and so at one point. So

apparently a cowboy can ride an ostrich. It's just not recommended. But the train

had square wheels or even the water gun. It had jelly instead of water inside of

it or a bird that would swim, a boat that couldn't stay afloat and a plane

that could not fly. And all of these were on that island of misfit toys. And

this, and as I knew the people at the church that was being described, I

was like, yeah, I can definitely see that. So yeah, absolutely. Sometimes I feel like

the misfit pastor, but I think that's okay. You know, this idea though of the

misfits, that's often what we start with when we look at the beatitudes and we

look at all these blessings, you know, blessed are the poor, the hungry, the sad,

the ones who were hated. And so we like it when we first look at it because

we're saying, you know what, even if you're a misfit, you don't fit. God still

loves you and you're still blessed. And that's what we look at. And we just

kind of stopped there because that's a good feeling. We like knowing that even

the ones who are rejected that they still have a place in God's kingdom. But

you know, there's a lot more to it than that. There's a lot more that we need to

realize. Like for example, why didn't the Charlie in the box just tell everybody

that his name was Jack? You didn't need to tell everybody, well, my name's

Charlie. Just pretend like you're a Jack in the box. Everybody else will believe

it. It's not a big deal. Or the water gun. You know what, just take what's

inside of you out and just put some water in. It shouldn't be that big of a deal.

But the idea that hiding who you are or avoiding what's on the inside is kind of

a big part of what we need to see in our Beatitudes today. But I do want to point

out something. We do have two different Beatitudes in the Gospels. And one of

them is from Luke and the other one is from Matthew. And we can't help but

wondering, is it Luke just repeating the same things that Matthew has said? Well,

in seeing that, there are these two passages that are there and they both

sound similar. But you see, for Luke, it says, blessed are the poor. But for Matthew,

it says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Or for Luke, it says, blessed are those

who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And Luke is saying, blessed are those

who are hungry. See, we don't like the Luke version as much. We like the Matthew

one. I am happy to be poor in spirit because I don't really want to be poor.

But I'm okay with being poor in spirit. That's just sort of on the inside. I'm

okay with that feeling. I mean, it happens. But this whole like hunger thing, I'm

okay with hungry and thirsting for righteousness. Just right after I finished

my fried chicken. You know, the thing with these two, though, is that they may not

actually be the same sermon. If you look and you see the two of them, there's a

lot that's actually different about Matthew's sermon from Luke. And the thing

about these sermons is that they could very well be two different times. Notice

one of them is up on a mountain and the other one is out on a plane. Now, some

people might say, well, but if you go up on the mountain, maybe it goes, gets

flat afterwards. And so it's both. It's on a mountain and it's on a plane at the

same time. And it's like, but you know, preachers, they sometimes have different

sermons, but maybe a little piece of it might be the same. I'm sure that over the

course of the last several years, you've heard me preach more than one time

about a cartoon I had watched. I'm sure you've heard me preach more than one time

about Gilmore Girls or Golden Girls or whatever sitcom I was enjoying at the

time. I'm sure that it has come up, but the sermons though, we're making

different points, just using a similar example. But the thing here is that

Jesus also has to make different points because in today's, we don't want to

just talk about the spiritual. We do need to talk about the physical and even

more than that, it is so uncomfortable as we hear woe to those who are rich. What

is he talking about? Why in the world would we condemn in some way the people

who are wealthy? Because clearly they're successful. That's a good thing. Why is

it that you have to make such a big deal out of wealth, Jesus? Or being full. I

just had a really great meal. Are you telling me that I shouldn't have food on

my table, Jesus? What am I missing here? Why is it that you have to include these

woes for things that sound like a good thing? I'm glad that I can laugh. Is it

laughter a good thing? Or even more than that, why is it that if someone says

something good about you, why would that bring a woe, Jesus? But part of this is

also a question of what we're afraid of. Because we are afraid of taking these

beatitudes in Luke at face value. We're afraid of what Jesus may actually be

trying to say. So what I want to do, I want to put the blessings and the woes

next to each other. All right. Want us to see them next to each other so we can

have a better idea of what it is that Jesus is trying to get across. It's the

idea that, bless it or the poor and woe to the rich. Because I want you to think

about this for a moment. Have you known what it is to not always be sure how the

future will turn out? Have you not always known for sure that you'd be able to pay

the mortgage or the rent? Have you ever been at a time where you couldn't pay for

whatever vacation you wanted to take or that you couldn't buy every present that

you thought the family needed? Where there are times where you realize that you

did not have something that you thought you wanted? Because with this is to pause

and realize that wealth, it's something that we almost assume or we assume that

we're meant to have that we deserve. Working hard must automatically mean that

we get everything that we would want. I know it's uncomfortable as we're talking

about this because this is America, right? We're supposed to be the place where

you can walk down the road and get whatever it is you want. I want fried

chicken, I want a cheeseburger, I want a salad, who really wants a salad? But you

should be able to get whatever it is that you're looking for. But when we do, when

do we realize our need for God? At what point are we able to slow down and say,

maybe something isn't what I'm going to get because I got it for myself. But

instead slowing down enough to say, what does God actually want me to have? Or

even to say, maybe God doesn't want me to have it right now. Or even more than

that, doesn't it speak to the fact that maybe we haven't even learned how to

share with the people who are actually in need? We've been making sure we've

satisfied all these things we wanted when we know that a person right next to us

has genuinely needed something. Or even beyond that, thinking about the world

around us, how many things that we can buy for maybe a fraction of the price of

what we know it's worth? Because we know that in some place, somewhere in the

world, people had things taken from them without being justly compensated. Or they

had to work for what was maybe pennies on the dollar. But that's okay because we

can tell ourselves that we're self-sufficient. And we can tell ourselves

that we don't have any part in what happens in the rest of the world. Or even

more than that, whenever we have our own business and we're so glad at the profit

that we've made, but we haven't justified in our minds why we shared that with

everybody else that worked with us. There are so many times or ways in which

having everything that we wanted can sometimes sabotage what God is trying to

speak to us. Or even trying to show us we don't actually need those things to find

joy or peace in God's kingdom. Or even more than that, what it is to be hungry

now rather than to be satisfied. Over this conference, the conference

itself was free. You pay for your hotel and your travel, but the conference

was free. And all these donations were made that they had tons of food everywhere.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, get as much as you wanted. You'd be wandering

around. There was coffee everywhere, donuts everywhere, danishes everywhere. You

could go and get a soda from a little ice bin pretty much the entire day.

And teenagers were walking around tossing out ice cream sandwiches the whole

day. It was ridiculous. And they had these little kebab skewers. And you could go up

to the donut holes and you just skewer yourself four little donut holes. And

you're walking along for place to place, eating your donut holes on your kebab.

And I went ahead and got a kebab full of donut holes. And then later on, got

another kebab of donut holes. And then realized I was about to go and stab

another kebab and then realized, wait a minute. Because number one, sometimes

we've actually been triggered into doing things without realizing that if you

see something that you can eat, that you don't normally get to have, you

automatically want to eat it even if you're not hungry. Or sometimes if there's

something you've never tried before and you're like, wait a minute, I have to try

this, even if it's something that you may not necessarily want. But even more

than that, I had a thought in my head that said, if I eat too many donuts this

week and I come back to church on Sunday, I might not want any Barbara's donuts.

And I am not going to offend Barbara Marchand and not eat her donuts. That's

the thing with it though, is our body is supposed to have times of full and times

of hunger. There are supposed to be times of the day where we aren't completely

full. There are times where our body is supposed to rest from not processing

food all the time, but also when we spend all of our time eating, then we become

lazy, tired, sluggish. But also even the point where our body is just spending the

whole time saying, what else can I have? And then we aren't even enjoying the

things that we're eating at all. Because whenever you haven't been full all the

time, aren't you more likely to appreciate what you can have? And more than

that, your body is actually able to tell you what it needs when it's not always

full, instead of just stuffing it with whatever you have in front of it. But the

same thing with what God is giving us to satisfy is that when we pause enough to

realize that not everything in this world will satisfy us, that we can turn to God

and realize that there is something that he can give us that no one else can. But

then the part of, blessed are those who weep now, and then woe to those who laugh.

Now, I am pretty sure it is okay to laugh in general. You have to. I'm the one

making the bad jokes. But when we realize that there are some who are always

avoiding the pain that is happening around them, what it may be where you have

a friend that is next to you who's going through a hard time. Are you able to

empathize and to feel the hurt along with them? Are you so afraid of feeling what

they're feeling that you will mask it with every video that you can find in

your Instagram or every single YouTube profile that you can come up with or make

sure that there is something that distracts you long enough for you not to

face what's even happening in your own life? How many times that we see

relationship struggle because when people are going through the hard times,

they're not willing to go through it together. Blessed are those who weep

because they're willing to walk alongside the people who need their love the most.

But even beyond that, blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you,

and revalue you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man and

woe to those when people speak well of you. The world around us, the world around

us is not always looking for what is good and true. There are many times where

even the majority will come up with ideas or will push for things that are

hurtful and wrong. There are times whenever we will see that the crowd wants

the things that hurt and belittle and destroy. I've known the times whenever

just even not even disagreeing outright with somebody, even just saying, I think

we could be nicer about this. I think we could be kind of maybe we just slow down.

Maybe we just try to find a better way to do it. When even the Christians are

sometimes so angry that someone disagreed. We are not meant to always say what

people want to hear. And whenever we are always being told that what we have to

say is great, doesn't that mean that maybe we should be concerned? There was a

pastor that was speaking. I've known him for a number of years and he was speaking

at the conference and when we were there he was sharing that at the beginning of

his ministry everything was going really really well. He said all of my sermons,

people were saying they were the best things ever and he was saying every

single thing ministry we tried to start it turned into gold. There was nothing we

couldn't start and he said anytime I asked for money that we could always find

it and people were always willing to give and at that moment I'm like I really

hate you. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. He's a great guy. But to be able to look into

say in his life people were just telling him the thing that he wanted to hear

because I'm sorry but if you listen to any public speaker at any point in time

not every single thing that they're going to say is perfect but even more than

that is every ministry it's not going to turn to gold because of one person. It's

going to succeed because of all the people that are part of it and so what

it was really revealing is where his heart was at and that that was the time

when he felt the most empty and that's the thing with what we're seeing that

Jesus is trying to get across to us is that without him without Jesus without

coming back to him by satisfying ourselves with what we think we want all

around us it's never going to allow us to draw closer to the one that we truly

need and being willing to say and ask what does Jesus want for us because if

we're not willing to stop long enough to say what does Jesus want for us then all

we're going to do is to continue to fill the void inside of ourselves with what

we think we're supposed to have but if we say what does Jesus want for us then

we might say love and mercy for our enemies if we have everything that we

want and our enemies are jealous or hurt or desperate then how will we ever

empathize and think that they deserve anything but condemnation and punishment

if we do not understand that we were shown love and mercy if we did not take

the time to separate from everything we could be given and to say God what do you

want for me and God says I want for you to know that these are blessings to you

because I've loved you if we don't do that then how will we know that God wants

blessings for the ones that revile us and that let's be honest we kind of

revile ourselves or how would we get to a point of knowing forgiveness how many

places how many times is it that we think about those who are oh everything

goes well for them seems like oh I can't believe that that person everything has

gone swimmingly and we remember how they hurt us we remember how they were

offensive we know what it was that they did and then to realize that that doesn't

mean that they're actually doing well because deep down inside only God knows

what is happening in their heart and so to realize that we ourselves need that

forgiveness is the only way that we can truly find a way to forgive the others

around us or maybe even to ask about the good fruit instead of the bad whenever

we see a tree that is continuing to blossom into bloom or certain bushes or

certain plants not all of them but many of them what we end up seeing is that

there are times when we have to cut back we have to trim back the branches

because if they keep growing without anything slowing them down then not

only one they're too big to be fed and watered by the nutrients that they have

but the fruits that are on them will never be able to grow and mature they'll

never truly ripen to be able to see that sometimes they have to be trimmed back

in order that what comes out of them is worth it or even more than that if the

fruit stays on too long and doesn't fall off at the right time will they end up

being gorged and rotted before they have the opportunity to be consumed because

that's a thing for us too is that there are times where God has to allow us to

be humbled it's not because he doesn't love us it's not because he's saying oh

I don't want you to have good things so he's saying if you got what you wanted

exactly when you wanted it might actually hurt you because God wants more

than anything for us to grow in spirit and in truth and the only way we can do

that is when we're willing to come to Jesus and if we've never known what it

is to be in need then how would we ever know that we need a Savior when we have

what we want all the time without question then would we ever truly want

Jesus because who is Jesus for us this is who Jesus is for us Jesus has been

poor he's been hungry he has been sad and he has been hated did Jesus as the son

of God the Word of God who existed since the beginning of all creation went

before he became a human being was he ever poor was he ever hungry did he have

to endure sadness did he have to let people hate him and hurt him but the

only way that he could love us was to come and be subjected to it all the

only way to truly fulfill the love that he had for us was to walk alongside us

but are we so afraid of these things that we're afraid of where they might

take us are we afraid to meet the people who are truly in need because maybe

maybe we may not get a chance to live out everything we want maybe we go

to a shelter where people are having to eat beans and rice and we're saying oof

if only could just add a little salsa to that that'd be perfect but to realize

that this is their life and that maybe by spending some time with them you get

to know them and understand them and maybe they could actually trust you

when you're sharing with them the grace of God or even more than that is to be

able to say that hey instead of making sure that I was able to upgrade my flight

is instead I know that that extra money could be used by the person who can't

even get the stove lit or to know that at the times whenever we have to say what

needs to be said we're willing to because even if they're not willing to

listen we just hope and pray that the Spirit will eventually convict and

change them are we so afraid of where poor hungry sad and hated places may take

us but then we realize that that's where Jesus is and that by realigning our

view of what we pursue to seek after Jesus if we're willing to let go of

what we think we want then maybe we have room for what Jesus has to give so today

I ask you what are the things that keep satisfying you to the point that it lets

you block out what Jesus is trying to bring you what is it that keeps filling

in the gaps that you feel before you get a chance to fill them with Jesus

because my hope and prayer for you today is that you would not be afraid not just

of being a misfit but of the times when you may feel poor and hungry and sad and

hated because at those times may very well be when Jesus can be seen the most

clearly to you and through you thanks be to God