Sunday Mornings | Living In The Tension

Thank you for listening to the Kelowna Christian Center Podcast.

Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you.

For more information on KTC and how to connect, visit us at KCC.net.

How many of you had your extra cup of coffee this morning?

You had an extra cup of coffee?

That's right.

I rarely come into service with a cup of coffee in my hand, and my wife was working at the coffee bar outside there, and I said, You gotta make me something this morning, okay?

You gotta make me something.

So I'm asking you all today to be extra loud, extra engaged.

And if if your neighbor isn't there, just give them a holy pinch and just say, This is for your, this is for your this is for your good.

This is so you don't miss it today.

Because God's got something for you.

And just pinch them a little bit.

We've given the ushers a little switch just to walk up and down the aisles and just tap you if it feels like you're nodding off a little bit.

No, morning came earlier today.

It came earlier today, every year.

It's the same joke, right?

We're gonna see people come in in about 20 minutes, and at that point we're all gonna stare and point.

Oh no, here they come.

And so, but this is uh this is uh a great time of the year because it's spring, and I it I can feel spring outside, okay?

The prayers of the righteous are mighty in power.

Amen.

And so this I still have like five feet of snow on the sides of my driveway, but every day that's shrinking, right?

Well, today is a little different in terms of our venue.

You've already been uh it's already been shared.

We're doing a a production with Heritage Theater.

Uh, they're doing Beauty and the Beasts.

And so it's for um it's all week this next week.

If you haven't got your tickets, you can get them online.

You can call the office, you can order them.

You can this place is packed out almost every night.

So find like almost every night.

There's there will be a seat for you, okay?

If you haven't got your tickets, come.

My daughter is a knife.

Not a knife, a knife, you know, uh the Aussie set.

She is a knife.

Someone wanted me to, you know, the someone wanted me to do to today's service with those big, you know, those gloves, you know, the T or the candlestick with the big gloves?

You guys, but I couldn't work with my iPad with a big glove, so it would have all been a fail.

It would have all been a fail.

But do you know that uh the scripture, or not the scripture particularly, but the um the culture that we're living in, and God Himself is into the arts.

And one of the mountains that the church is called to reach is the the mountain of arts.

The mountain of art.

Art, painting, decoration, fashion, aesthetics.

Uh, because it's good for the soul.

Art is a place that, like, if you just had life that was just basic, dull, black and white, there would be something amiss.

But because of the color, like, how many of you are excited to see color outside?

You're excited to see the color of the plants and the and the blooming of the flowers and the and the green grass until you have to cut it, and then it's like, oh man, I gotta cut the grass.

And then you remember, boy, there was a time I prayed for this grass.

The grass would come, right, Justin?

Right.

So, but there is um, we want to be a church that encourages expression.

Everyone has a voice.

Turn to your neighbor and tell them I have a voice.

Yeah, it's a beautiful voice before God.

Before God, it's beautiful.

But it's an art is an expression of your creativity, art is an expression of innovation.

Uh, there's a reason why cultures in the world that promote art are innovative cultures.

But cultures and government systems that promote just strict uh basic structural uh engineering and building, they don't see the innovation that we see in North America because there's a promotion of art.

And we pro so we promote art, we promote the culture, and if we're smart, we'll highlight it.

And so one of the ways we're reaching our community is through Beauty and the Beast.

It's through our arts, and so we're so grateful for Delane and her team and the cult and the uh the crew at uh HCS uh and the the job they've done for the many months to actually just uh build this uh great um great production.

It's gonna be great.

Art makes the invisible visible, it uh brings the natural into what we see in the spirit, and the scripture talks about your soul prospering and your soul coming alive.

How many of you have ever watched a movie and cried before?

I I have rarely have I ever seen my wife cry in a movie, and the other day she cried, and I was like, what?

I watched her cry and she was moved with that with that movie.

But when I I think art in that place can reach a place that a lot of times we can't reach.

So we love to be able to promote it, to promote it, and uh we like to promote the the color and the dance and everything along with it.

So I'm I'm gonna be there this week with uh celebrating my my daughter the knife and uh the cutlery, as they're called, the cutlery, and it'll be a great time.

So today we're gonna be talking about dichotomies.

Now a dichotomy is uh dichotomy is a division or a contrast between two things.

Dichotomy.

Two individual things that are in tension with one another.

It's uh it's when one thing is directly opposed to another.

You can even suggest maybe this drama, the beauty and the beast, is a dichotomy.

It's an opposition to one, they are each in opposition to one another.

It's like light versus darkness or uh hot versus cold, uh, evil versus good, and they're complete opposites, and that's what dichotomy is.

But if you live your life in a state of dichotomy, if you live your life always looking at what you're against, then you're going to miss what you're for.

You're gonna miss what all the things you are for.

If you're only looking at life through the position and through the lens of who is against me, the dichotomy of life, then you're gonna miss who is actually for you.

Do you know that the gospel is a message where God is for the the world sees this?

The world sees the church is against gay marriage, uh against all these different things.

Like some of them are completely untrue, against climate change.

I don't know how the church got into that, but against gun control, like we're for gun control, and so against peace, and and we're for war.

And they're there the world has this view of what the church is against when really the church is for loving one another.

The church is for peace in our world, the church is for joy and family and life, the church is for uh people living reconciled to one another.

And these are the things that the church is for, not against, not in opposition to.

Now, you get a lot of people who love to promote the things that the church is against because it becomes real dramatic.

There's lots of tension in it.

But when you promote the things the church is for, it's like, oh, the church is for friendships that are tight.

The church is for a social community, a network of people supporting one another, sharing each other's burden.

It's not as dramatic.

It doesn't sell the same way.

But we believe that God is for us, not against us.

God is for our future, God has given us a hope.

God has given us an opportunity, God has given us a future, he's for our future.

And he's for our good, that we would actually have that future, not only that would we would have a future, but it'd be a good future and a long future.

So this dichotomy that we live in oftentimes, and there are many of us who are guilty about it, at some times having a dumb dichotomy that we live in.

We live in.

And some of it may even be seen like nature, like what we suggested today, shoveling the driveway or mowing the lawn.

It's like just enjoy it.

There are two opposites, but we can enjoy both.

I know it's hard to think about that right now.

Shoveling your driveway one last time.

How many put their shovels away?

I did it by faith this weekend.

Goodbye, shovels.

But we're gonna we're gonna be talking about some of these dumb dichotomies that we live under and we live with in the context of living as a believer, uh, where one truth is positioned against another truth, causing us to think in an either-or scenario when it's actually not uh not one or the other, but it's both.

Um we had a great weekend this weekend um watching uh some of the HCS boys uh play their single-A basketball tournament.

Uh they like, if many of you know, this is March Madness.

So every basketball team is out trying to uh you know claim their their position in this in the province in terms of uh their championships, and it's so it was provincials, and I'm happy to say that our single A's boys team is number one in the province.

That's pretty cool.

It is pretty cool.

So for big uh college basketball fans, especially right now, the NCAA has got their.

Um they've been running all their university or colleges in the states, and they've been pushing pretty hard.

Uh teams are trying to win this uh competition.

But this week we celebrated this tournament and we just saw the kids win.

I just thought it was so awesome.

I don't know where the girls positioned, where the girls position, Paul?

Seventh.

Seventh.

Seventh.

So seventh in the province, too.

So that's awesome for our girls as well.

Um, but if you went to a basketball game and uh you can imagine, you know, in a basketball team discussing whether they're gonna play offense or defense.

So you hear the coach talking, he says, okay, uh, you guys know what we're gonna do here.

I think what we're gonna do is we're just gonna play straight offense.

Well, that would be a silly position to take as a coach.

To run your team on full offense full time.

Because sometimes in the game you gotta play defense.

And it's not always just an offense game, sometimes you have to play defense as well.

And it's not a one or the other.

What should we play?

Offense or defense?

You can't just play one or the other, you have to play both.

And you gotta live in that tension.

When do we push forward?

And when do we hold back?

And a good team knows when to be offensive, when to switch over, and then when to back up and actually support their team on a defensive level.

So here's what I want to say to you today.

Those sort of unnecessary conversations are the source of a lot of strife among Christians all the time.

And it's on the regular.

You you read about it, you hear about it, you listen to people talk about it, arguments about things that we have no reason to have arguments over.

We've all fallen prey to this conversation and arguments that we've taken a position upon, uh, where it's it's neither one or the other.

In the past, there have been values placed on debate.

You were valuable if you knew how to win a debate.

If you could prove that you were right.

And um this was celebrated, this was applauded, this is great, but you can win if you call someone, like the idea is you can win if you're calling someone else wrong.

It encouraged us to defend the truth that we stood for.

And we were not placed on this earth on mission to prove people are wrong.

At times, in order to elevate our truth, we put down someone else, and it's a huge deterrent to our cause.

We're not here to prove people are wrong.

My experience in the church and in this church has been incredible.

But I I remember these tensions that we have.

Whether we let someone walk in with a hat honoring God, or someone without a hat.

You come dressed up, do you wear jeans or you don't wear jeans?

Do you listen?

What kind of music you're listening to?

Is it like techno beats of God or not of God?

Some of you would say, it's not of God.

What is it?

One or the other.

And we create this tension, and that someone has to be right.

This has to be wrong because I'm in disagreement with it.

But maybe it's not wrong for you.

The dichotomy.

So, as Christians, we're supposed to do whatever we can to avoid these arguments.

The scripture is clear that we're called to be in agreement with each other so that we can be effective in our mission.

So, let me share with you a few scriptures.

I don't have them on the screens today, but you can read them in your Bible or on your phone.

Um, Titus chapter 3, verse 9 says this avoid foolish arguments, foolish controversies, quarrels about the law.

Titus 3:9

Because these things are pointless and worthless.

Some things are just not worth arguing about.

Is it a beauty or is it a beast?

It doesn't matter.

They're both human, kind of.

Well, I don't know what the beast is.

He was he was human in his heart.

But uh you've got what is it?

Where's the tension in this moment?

2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 23.

2 Timothy 2:23

Do not have anything to do with foolish and stupid discussions, because you know they breed arguments, creating places and and tones that actually create tension in relationships, conversations that are meant to just be controversial, are not welcome.

Before we begin, uh I'm I just want to be able to share with you that there are some truths that are just standalone truths.

They stand alone.

An example of this is like they're uh you can't argue with them, they're on them in them of themselves, they are truth, solid, firm, never going to change, immovable.

Uh ones like there is only one God and there is none beside him.

These are truths that you just you can't argue about.

These are truths, they're standalone truths.

There's only one Savior, his name is Jesus.

There's no other name by which a person can be saved.

The name of Jesus, these are truths, they're absolute unarguable truths.

The church is God's plan for the world, another unarguable truth.

The church is God's plan A.

And he never made a plan B.

He said the church, the church, it will become that rock, that place that will that he'll build his kingdom upon.

The church is that space.

But the tension and argument is not worth it's not worth its uh weight.

So while these are standalone, there are others that are meant to be collaborated with other truths.

The truth that they're meant to be collaborated with can appear to be an enemy.

So uh let me just do an example.

Maybe I can have Ryan come on up.

Ryan and Brian.

Ryan and Brian, okay?

If Ryan, let's give them a hand as they come up for a moment.

Oh, there's gotta be a distinction between you two.

Beard, beard and no beard, okay?

Ryan, why don't you come on this side?

So there's so why don't you take my hand?

I'm just gonna look at my notes a little bit here.

We're just gonna sit here for a little while and just just just show unity and love and get a few Instagram posts.

Yeah, make this a social media connect.

But there's a space where people try and pull you one way or the other way.

So, Brian, if he's pulling me uh one way or the other way, so give me a good poll, you hold me there.

I get eventually there comes a time, like give me a yeah, give me a good poll.

And there comes a place, I know I'm I'm really nervous about this.

That's why my hands.

My soft hands, he says.

Uh so if there's a polling, now Ryan, Ryan, you give me a good poll, okay, and you get, and there's what happens in most tension is that one person wants to pull you, but when you get pulled, you get pulled away from someone else.

And there becomes that division, there becomes that, you know, you can keep holding my hand, there becomes that division and that breakdown in relationships.

Now, if you're holding and now what happens is if you can live in a space where if you're pulling and you're pulling, and I can hold on, there's more tension in me.

Like I'm the one who needs to keep that tug of war in managed.

I'm the one who has to live within the tension of my life.

I have to live within this dichotomy.

Where do I move?

One way or the other, and I have to find my solid ground myself.

And when that happens, thanks guys, why don't we give them a hand?

Thanks for coming out.

We need to live within the tension of two truths.

Now you'd be like, well, that doesn't sound biblical.

Can there really be two truths?

Can a redhead and a blonde still be beautiful?

Yes.

My redhead wife.

Can can can really you can can you still live together?

You know that our world, like, man, in the last little while, I've Really become made aware of the tensions in community.

A lot of it is just straight racism.

Like I've in the last week, I've had to confront racism against the Indigenous people, the First Nations, racism against uh like uh darker skinned people.

I I've had to deal with this this issue with people, and I'm trying to figure out how why people are pulled one way or another.

Well, the rep I have great friends who have darker skin.

I have great friends who are are um indigenous.

I I I'm pulled like, but people break away from one and just separate, and they create this space between them.

And it's awful.

And you have to address it.

And you and I thought, you know, man, maybe this would have been dealt with like a long time before.

You even deal with it in society today.

Are men or women?

Who's better?

Men or women?

I'm like, who created this tension?

Who created this tension?

I love women.

I love one in particular.

I've mom.

But but you know, you but I there are great guys I love.

Like, why does there have to be, you have to be on one side, it's become individual, it's become identity politics, where you can only be for one group that you identify with, and everyone else you have to push away.

It is secondary to the group that you identify with.

So if you're for women, you're against men.

And if you're for men, you're against women.

And it's the state of culture right now is that we're not good at living within that dichotomy.

We're not good at living within that tension.

And saying, and it's a cultural breakdown because people haven't learned how to live within that tension.

Men and women, different, wonderful.

Different, great, different, both to be celebrated.

But we're different.

So we celebrate them both.

So we come together.

Together we're stronger.

Together, we build stronger, and we can do more.

So Paul said these types of examples.

These are the examples Paul dealt with.

He said, Is salvation for the Jew or the Gentile?

He was asked these questions.

Salvation, is it for the Jew or the Gentile?

Tell us, who is God's holy people?

And Paul says, one is not a Jew who is one outwardly, it is one who is one inwardly.

In other words, he answered both.

It's not Jew or Gentile.

That wasn't the belief system.

God doesn't show favoritism, it's both.

But people are always trying to separate you to one side or another, where it's both another.

Should we be studying the law or living in grace?

Paul was asked that.

Should you study the law?

Should you live under the law, or should you live in grace?

And Paul looked at them and he said, both.

The law is the schoolmaster that brings you to Christ, but it's grace by which you've been saved.

So the law made you aware of how in need of grace you were.

So you needed the law to make you aware of your need, but grace was there to provide for your emptiness.

Your weakness.

So you realize how weak you were because of the law.

And grace was there to sustain you.

You need the law, you need grace.

So don't get rid of the law and don't get rid of grace.

Live in the tension.

Are we saved by faith or are we saved by works?

Both.

Show me your faith without your works, I'll show you my faith by my works.

Faith and works.

Faith without works is dead.

It's this tension that we live in between.

Am I following you, Paul, or am I following Christ?

And Paul said, Why don't you just follow me as I follow Christ?

You notice how there was never a place where he was required to like create a dichotomy, like live with one side or another in these situations.

Paul, what are you gonna do when you're in Rome?

I'm gonna act like a Roman.

What am I gonna do when you're in Jerusalem?

I'm gonna act like a Jew.

So that I can save as many as I can save, reach as many as I can reach.

How important is it?

Good, what how's the outer appearance of a person?

Is that important?

Or is it the inner appearance of a person?

Is the inner heart of the person?

Does God judge the outer?

Does God judge the inner?

He judges both.

The outer is important, the inner is important.

You have to be able to reach people, become what you need to be to be able to reach those people.

The outside matters, the inside matters.

Judges the heart.

God looks at the inner side, the inner place of a man, both and.

He realized that there's a controversial agenda.

There's an agenda that people get into these silly debates and strifes over.

And there are those that are there to divide.

And we are not a people at KCC who will entertain those divisions.

We're not a people at KCC who will entertain arguments that are just silly arguments.

I'll just shut out.

If it's an argument that's meant to divide, because we don't have time for it, number one.

And there are other things that are more important than silly debates.

So what needs to be done is how the question, the deeper question is, how can we love each other better?

How can we love God deeper?

How can is what you're doing drawing us closer to Him or pushing us farther away?

And is this debate something worth debating or is it something not worth debating?

And these are battles that we have to choose.

So here are some of the dichotomies.

Will you be spirit-led or will you have a plan?

I look at Pastor Ed.

Pastor for a long time, pastoring for a long time here at KCC.

And we know, we've we've heard these before.

Are you spirit-led at KCC?

Do you just come to church?

No plan, no agenda, and just let her rip?

Just let her rip and see what God does?

Yes.

Can God also give you an agenda earlier in the week where you're spirit-led?

And God's like, this is what I want you to do on Sunday.

Okay.

I'm ready for it.

What would happen if I didn't come up here?

Now, I've kind of worked this tension out.

I sometimes I prepare my message on like a Thursday.

I've got it ready approximately by Thursday.

And then I wait on the Lord until Sunday.

And I'm balancing this tension.

I know what I'm going to speak on, this dichotomy, but I'm going to wait on the Lord to disrupt my message.

Even so that I had a second message prepared today.

When you're up at night and you're up in the morning, and it's like three in the morning, which is two this morning, and you're wrestling in your brain, Lord, is it really what you want me to share?

Because I'm not quite sure.

This is pretty tense stuff.

To talk about, to communicate this tension, this dichotomy that we live inside.

Is it really what you want me to share about?

That you're living in a both end.

You want to be spirit-led, but you also want to have a plan.

I'm glad that everyone on the stage today knew which key they were playing in.

I'm glad that someone was here in the morning to open the doors.

And that we've got qualified people downstairs taking care of the kids.

There's a plan that we have in place.

You can't just swing one way and swing another.

You live in the tension.

You know what happens when you have a guitar?

You restring.

Josh Matt Veshin stays in our suite at our house, and uh I could hear him last night tuning his guitar because he was playing this morning for worship.

And as he was tuning his guitar, the the value of that instrument is when it's in perfect tension.

It's pulled one way, each way, it's the string, if it's too loose, the string will just flop around.

If it's too tight, the string will break.

But in that perfect space where it's hitting that perfect note is when the key when the string is in key.

The string is at perfect pitch.

And at that perfect pitch, when those strings are strung or strummed, then you have music.

You can provide that music.

We need to find that tension.

Another one, is God good or does he let us suffer?

Both.

God is good, and life is hard.

Life is hard, God is good.

The question is this where do you want to live?

I can live with life and looking at life through all of the places where life is difficult.

And or I can live in life and saying, oh, this is where all the space where God is good, but I want to live in the space where life can be difficult, but God is still good.

And I'm in that tension where life is hard, but God is good.

And you know what?

Life can be hard, but my attention is on the fact that God is good.

So, yes, I had challenges in work today.

Yes, my contractor never completed his job.

Yes, my bills didn't get, my bill didn't, my invoice never got paid.

Yes, but God is still good.

So we live in this tension where God doesn't say life will be perfect.

You you realize that God actually puts people and difficulties and challenges in your life, and you to, and you still have to wrestle with this tension between the two.

Life can be good and life can be hard, but God is always good.

You can move to another place, and we need to live in that space.

Do you believe, Brody, in austerity or prosperity?

So many people believe that God would have us live on a conservative budget, under budget, in fact.

Simple, basic, medium, mediocre.

That reference could go to the rich man, they could take the scripture, they say, well, the rich man, Jesus spoke to the rich man, told him to sell everything, give it all to the poor.

So God must want us to live conservatively.

Only needs being taken care of, that's it.

And you could pull that scripture and stand on it, shout it out, it's the way you're gonna live.

The challenge is that then you have to deal with the other 92 verses in the scripture that talk about the fact that God wants to prosper you.

Okay, well then I got a problem.

Because God is the one who gives wealth.

Alright, then if God gives me wealth, but I'm supposed to live conservative, then what do I do with all this money and resource?

And God wants to give you favor, and well, God wants to be good to you, but I want to live in austerity.

How can you live in both austerity and prosperity in the same space?

You need to be careful because when you look at scripture, Abraham was very wealthy, David was very wealthy, Solomon was very wealthy, and some even speculate that Jesus was very wealthy.

He had a treasure among his twelve disciples.

He was, you don't really need a treasure if you have nothing.

It's a pretty easy job to have if you have nothing.

But you need to be careful because sometimes God will say to you, shrink your lifestyle.

And at other times, God may say, I'm blessing you and your family.

I'm providing resources for you to be able to do the things that I want you to do.

So purchase that home, put a down payment on that space, pay off those debts, pay off someone else's debts, take that vacation where there's like this tension.

It's not one or the other.

It's both.

It's uh both fit in with the lifestyle of a believer.

And if you're not careful, criticism will slip into your heart and you'll begin to go to someone's home and it's a really big home, and you start to criticize it and judge the fact that they've got a big home.

Why are they living in such a big home?

Don't they know that there are other places where they could put their money?

Grump.

And yet others can live in a space where they're living smaller.

And if they would talk to the person who's been able to find out how to tap into wealth, they too could tap into wealth.

But it's your resentment against that that restricts you and keeps you from being blessed.

So don't cut off people in your life.

Don't get pulled that you let go of someone else who could become a blessing to you at a time when you need it.

Allow that life to be there.

Your life is shaped by your thoughts.

So be careful what you think, be careful how you act, be careful how you believe.

God is interested in changing your mind, is more interested in changing your mind than he is in changing your circumstances.

And so what he wants to do is he wants to change your mind first.

How you're going to live within this dichotomy and learn to live within the tension and actually learn to grow and mature in that space.

Amen.

Amen.

Father, we thank you.