The Upside Down Kingdom

Before we jump into the meat of our message this morning, I want us to try our best, and I think we can we can all pull this off, to get in a specific mindset.

And it's the mindset that you would have had, say, in like early to like mid-childhood.

Right?

So kind of try to put yourself in the mindset that you may have had when you were like five to ten years old.

What were things that were really important to you that maybe don't matter at all anymore?

Were there things that were treasures to you that are worthless now?

Were there things that you loved back then that you don't care about now?

Or maybe were there things that you hated back then that you actually enjoy right now?

Step into that mindset of being a young child.

That's kind of easy for me.

I'm cheating a little bit because I have four kids at home.

And so I'm constantly dealing with the mindsets of young children, and young children think very differently than we as adults think.

And so my youngest is five, and uh, and I love him so much.

I I should, I don't know why I always say that when I mention my kids.

I guess I should, you know, like I it'd be weird if I didn't, but like I love him a lot, but he's very different.

He's he's unique.

There are things that at five years old he cares about that that to me are meaningless.

For example, my five-year-old loves rocks.

And not like special rocks, not specific rocks.

We're not talking gemstones, we're not talking anything that has intrinsic value or extrinsic value.

No, he just he loves rocks.

He will find a rock and just decide this rock is important.

This this random rock, we're at a park.

Uh, even sometimes when we're leaving church, if he walks by some of the little tree beds that we have that have random rocks, he'll just grab one, put it in his pocket.

And that rock for the next three days is of utmost importance.

That rock is special because he picked it.

He'll carry it around with him everywhere he goes, and then he will inevitably lose it, and then he will lose his mind.

And I will be like just scouring our home trying to find what is, from my perspective, a stupid, meaningless rock.

But it's it's vital at that moment in time.

There's things that he loves that I don't care about in the slightest.

There are things that he hates that are wonderful to me.

For example, I enjoy sleeping.

I love sleeping.

How many of you enjoy sleep?

Like a good night's sleep is something to look forward to, you know.

Like I don't go to bed super early, but I don't fight sleep.

Like when I feel it coming on, I'm like, yeah, let's do this.

It is time.

Right?

And obviously, you know, children don't tend to love sleep, but his hatred of sleep is like at a different level.

And I've actually experienced this with most of my kids.

I think it's just something about being a child that you fight sleep.

You hate it.

And so when I say it's bedtime every night, like he pleads with me, he begs me, as if he's been sentenced unjustly to some type of prison, right?

Like I say, hey, it's bedtime, and it's just, no, dad, please, please, please.

And he walks up the stairs, you know, pleading the entire time.

I'm sitting there, like, just go to bed, like you need you're clearly tired, like you're obviously tired.

But he pleads with me, and then sometimes, sometimes he uh he runs away.

I don't know if any of you have ever had kids that have done that, where he'll just decide I'm gonna make a break for it.

And I don't know what his plan is long term, but in that moment, he's like, if they don't catch me, they can't put me to bed.

Lately he started a new tactic to delay bedtime, he hides.

And so a couple nights ago, this literally happened.

I sent him up to bed, told him, you know, hey, go brush your teeth.

I'll be up there in a few minutes, we'll we'll do our bedtime routine.

And I got up there and he was nowhere to be found.

I thought, well, maybe he came back downstairs, maybe he made a run for it, you know.

I just didn't see it.

And so I went back downstairs, I'm looking for him, I'm calling out his name, no response.

You know, I find out from the other people downstairs, they haven't seen him since he went upstairs.

I'm like, okay, he's up there.

I don't think he jumped from the window.

I don't think he's, I don't think he hates it that much, not yet anyway.

So I go up, I'm I'm looking for him, and I just realized, okay, he's here somewhere in this room.

He's hiding from me.

So I did what a lot of dads do.

I found this, guys.

If if you're a dad and you haven't tried this tactic, I'll just give it to you.

This is free advice.

Um, I'll just threaten, but I don't say what the consequence will be.

I just let their imagination do the work.

So instead of saying, I will do X, Y, or Z, if you don't, I just sort of say, if you're not where I need you to be before I count to five, and then I don't finish it.

And I just let them think, what could he do to me?

And usually it's pretty effective.

And so I'm in his room and I'm just calm.

It's quiet.

And I said, Eli, I know you're in here.

And if you don't come out from where you're hiding before I count to five, one, two, three, and four.

I just see an arm appear from underneath his bed.

And then he just sort of scoots himself out.

And it blew me away because in that moment I realized, okay, in your mind, it would be better for you to hide underneath your bed on the cold, hard floor, just filthy, dirty, all kinds of things are under their bed.

I'm gonna be honest with you, we don't really extensively clean under the bed.

And so, in his mind, it would be better to stay there all night long, awake, I guess, than to lay down just a few inches north on a soft, comfortable mattress and close your eyes.

That's how much he hates bedtime.

And you know what?

I can remember hating bedtime too.

I can remember just desiring to stay up as late as humanly possible every single night.

Now I welcome bedtime.

There's just so many things like that with my kids.

And if you can get back to that mindset of being a child, there's so many things that back then you were probably like, I loved it, now I don't.

It was the most important thing to me, now it's not.

It was a treasure, now it's worthless.

Kids think differently.

And honestly, from our perspectives, most of the time we look at kids and we're like, what are you thinking?

It's like they think sort of upside down.

And I want us to kind of put a pin in that idea, and that's going to be a focal point for us for this conversation today.

The idea of being upside down.

Last Sunday, we started a series called A Kingdom Come.

A kingdom come.

We're talking about the kingdom of God.

And this is a phrase that Jesus uses all the time.

If you haven't been here much this year, uh, we've been going through the entire story of the Bible bit by bit.

We broke the entire story down into 14 different series.

And from February all the way up through December, we're going through those.

We're making our way through them one after another.

We're actually pretty close to the end at this point in time.

And so if you're here and you're new and you're like, man, I'm late to the party, you're at the party.

Just be excited that you're at the party.

It's okay if you're late.

All right, it's better to be late than not be at the party.

But but it's been very interesting, and right now we're in this very short three-week series called A Kingdom Come that is all about the teachings of Jesus.

Trying to sort of get to the core of what Jesus taught.

And if you were to take all of the teachings of Jesus and try to find one common theme that runs through them, it would be the theme of the kingdom.

Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

It says that Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the good news about the kingdom.

Matthew 4 17, from then on, Jesus began to preach, repent of your sins and turn to God.

Why?

For the kingdom of heaven is near.

Jesus is always talking about the kingdom and what it's like to be part of God's kingdom.

Last week we looked at what that is, what it's not.

If you weren't here, you can always listen to that and kind of catch up.

Today we're going to talk about the values of the kingdom.

What are the things that we should value if we're living as part of God's kingdom?

What we find is that the values of God's kingdom, as Jesus teaches them to us, are very much upside down compared to the rest of the world.

That Jesus teaches us to live upside down.

And that's in part why so many people have a really hard time knowing what to make of Jesus.

Even to this day, people will look at Jesus, they'll think about Jesus, and it's like, I don't really know what to do with you because Jesus is so different.

The way that he lives, the way that he teaches, the life that he prescribes us to live, it's it's so different, it's virtually upside down.

People have had a hard time knowing what to do with Jesus since the beginning.

If you read the story of Jesus and you get to the end of his story before he goes to the cross, he's face to face with a man named Pilate.

Pilate is a Roman governor, he's in charge of this area that Jesus lives in.

It's a very volatile area.

Pilate had a really hard job.

The people who had Pilate's job didn't tend to have it for very long.

His main priority was just keeping the people from revolting.

And that was something that was like always about to happen.

It was always, it was always on the edge of disaster.

And so there's all this craziness going on about Jesus.

There's all this commotion, and he doesn't like commotion, he doesn't want commotion.

Commotion isn't good for Pilate's job security.

And so Jesus is arrested and he's brought before Pilate.

And Pilate does not know what to make of Jesus.

He cannot figure Jesus out.

It's really clear, actually, because Pilate's trying to plead with Jesus to make a defense for himself so he doesn't have to get crucified, and Jesus just won't even answer him.

In John chapter 19, why don't you talk to me?

John 19 · chapter mention

Pilate demanded.

Don't you realize that I have the power to release or crucify you?

Now, if you're a Jesus follower, just imagine standing in front of Jesus and trying to impress him when it comes to your power and your authority.

The idea of standing in front of Jesus and trying to convince him of how much power and authority you have.

Clearly, Pilate does not know who he's talking to.

Doesn't know what to make of Jesus.

And we actually see that in a specific interaction that he had.

We looked at this a little bit last week.

In John chapter 18, Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him, and he asked him, Are you the king of the Jews?

John 18 · chapter mention

Jesus replied, Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?

Am I a Jew?

Pilate retorted.

Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial.

Why?

What have you done?

And Jesus answered, My kingdom, here we go again.

My kingdom is not an earthly kingdom.

If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders, but my kingdom is not of this world.

It says, My kingdom is not of this world.

Now, if you don't know the totality of what Jesus taught, you could read this and think that when Jesus talks about his kingdom, he's talking about heaven.

We kind of covered a little bit of this last week, that he's talking about some far-off thing.

It's not of this world, it's not an earthly kingdom, but that doesn't mean that the kingdom of God isn't on the earth.

It absolutely is.

A few scriptures that we examined a little bit last week.

Luke chapter 17.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, When will the kingdom of God come?

And Jesus replied, The kingdom of God can't be detected by visible signs.

You won't be able to say, Here it is, or hey, it's over there.

For the kingdom of God is already among you.

Jesus said, The kingdom is here.

It's standing in front of you.

It's a present reality.

In Luke chapter 11, Jesus has uh done something really crazy.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

There's a person that's been uh demon-possessed, and they're acting like a person you would imagine is demon-possessed would act.

And one interaction with Jesus, they don't act like that anymore.

The demon's gone.

And people are kind of freaking out about that.

The Pharisees, they don't like Jesus, and so they're trying to convince everyone that the reason Jesus is able to have power over Satan is because Jesus is like buddies with Satan, basically.

And so it says in Luke 11 that Jesus knew their thoughts.

And so he said, Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed.

A family splintered by feuding will fall apart.

You say I'm empowered by Satan.

But if Satan is divided and fighting against himself, how can his kingdom survive?

And if I'm powered by him, if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists?

They cast out demons too, so so they will condemn you for what you've said.

But if I am casting out demons by the power of God, then the kingdom of God has arrived among you.

So multiple times Jesus teaches us that the kingdom of heaven is right here, it is right now.

Yes, it is in the future, yes, it's greater than just the earth, but but it is, it's here because the kingdom is wherever the will of God is done.

Jesus prayed in the Lord's Prayer, your will be done, right?

But before he said that, he said, Your kingdom come.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The kingdom of God is wherever the will of God is done.

And the will of God is done in heaven, and it's also done on this earth by those who follow Jesus.

So we're living as citizens in the kingdom if we've given our life to Jesus.

The kingdom of heaven is it's here, but it's not of this world.

It's not an earthly kingdom in the sense that it does not share the values of this world.

It is not empowered by earthly strength.

It doesn't need earthly might to advance and to move forward.

It's not something that we can make happen by earthly means.

Like we can't legislate the morality of the kingdom of God.

We can't make it happen.

It's of God.

When it says that my when he says my kingdom is not of this world, you could actually translate it, my kingdom is not from this world.

It didn't originate here.

It's from heaven, but it's here now.

And Jesus calls us to live according to this new kingdom.

And the values are totally different.

They're strange.

It's like stepping back into childhood and valuing completely different things.

Last Sunday, we looked at this teaching that a rabbi named Jesus, who lived about 150 years before Jesus, we looked at this lesson that he taught that by the time Jesus, our Jesus, is on the scene, everyone would have been familiar with.

His name was Jesus Ben Sirach.

And he said something that proved to be very famous, very long-lasting, it's still talked about today.

And here's what he said.

He said, Blessed are those who rejoice in their children.

Blessed are those who live to see the downfall of their foes.

Blessed is the man who lives with an intelligent wife.

Blessed are those who have not made a slip of the tongue.

Blessed are those who do not have to serve someone inferior to them.

Blessed are those who have gained good sense.

Blessed are those who speak to attentive listeners.

Blessed are those who have gained wisdom.

But no one is more blessed than the person who fears the Lord.

Now, some of that is great.

It's godly wisdom.

Like fearing the Lord, being in awe of God, that's a really good thing.

But it's amazing how much of what this man taught just lines up with the value systems of the world.

Jesus came along 150 years later and he took the same language, the same structure, this very famous teaching of this Jewish rabbi named Jesus, Jesus Ben Sarach, and Jesus flipped it on his head.

He turned the whole thing upside down.

And in Matthew chapter 5, he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

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

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

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

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of the righteousness, because of righteousness.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

This is Jesus taking this popular teaching and turning it on its head, flipping it completely upside down.

And if we're actually serious, if we look at these descriptions of the kinds of people that God says are blessed, we realize that this is a very different picture than what the world teaches us.

This is a very different set of values.

And so let's break it down just a little bit.

Because it's really interesting if you really get into the details.

Ben Sirach said, Blessed are those who speak to attentive listeners.

Let's look at that one first.

Blessed are those who speak to attentive listeners.

In other words, you're blessed when you're popular.

You're blessed when everyone likes you.

You're blessed when everyone pays attention to you and gives you their approval.

Now, do you need God to teach you that, or is that just a principle of the world that we live in?

Like, when did you first learn that it's good to be popular and it's a good thing for everyone to like you?

Did you need like some godly sage to teach you that, or did you learn that from your first grade classmates?

Right?

Like I got in a lot of trouble as a kid in school.

A lot of trouble.

My wife actually was a teacher for many years, which is kind of ironic that God would have me marry a teacher and she taught elementary school because I was the kid that she would have been like, no, not him, in elementary school.

And so in first grade, this has always stuck with me.

I had a great teacher, Mrs.

Grershevsky.

Mrs.

Groshevsky.

I can't even begin to fathom how to spell that name.

And so, no idea where she is today, who knows, but she was awesome, so I don't know if by any chance Ms.

Gershevsky ever hears this.

You were great, and I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Miss Groshevsky was really sweet.

I only have good memories of her, it was a long time ago.

But my one of my distinct memories is that Miss Greshevsky created a special desk and she called it the island.

And that's where I got to be.

And the island was right next to Ms.

Groshevsky, and it was away from the rest of the class.

And the reason that she had to create that for me was because I learned pretty early that it was fun, it was exciting, it filled me up if everyone in class paid attention to me.

Right?

Like so, I was perfectly willing to disrupt, to distract, by the time I was older, to even be disrespectful.

If it meant the laughter of my classmates, if it meant their attention.

And the truth is, I was being selfish, yes, but I was just living by what Ben Sirach said.

You're blessed when you have a captive audience.

And so I just yearn for a captive audience.

And if that meant taking away the attention that the class had on a teacher, I mean, why do teachers have to be the center of attention so much?

Like, come on, share the attention, right?

Like we can spread it around a little bit.

No, for I mean, anyone who was my teacher in those years, I'm sorry.

But I just I learned by the value systems of the world that it's good when everyone pays attention to you.

And so I I lived for that.

That was that was me for a really long time.

You're blessed when you're popular, you're blessed, you're blessed when everyone laughs at you, likes you, and when you have everyone's approval.

But Jesus teaches us very different things.

In Matthew chapter 5, verses 10 and 11.

Matthew 5:10

Jesus says, Blessed are those who are persecuted because of their righteousness.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

That's very different.

That's very different than being blessed because everyone gives you the thumbs up.

Like that would be like if you're a business owner and you get a negative review and it's a lie.

Like some of you have had that experience.

You run a business, someone's been upset, some disgruntled customer, and they've gone on and they've exaggerated something, they've lied, and you would look at that and be like, yeah, yes, persecution.

I'm so blessed today.

But we don't think that way, not naturally.

We don't tend to receive persecution or even lies, attacks, as blessings.

But Jesus says that in his kingdom, no, you're actually blessed when people don't approve because of the fact that you're living for God's kingdom.

That is, in a word, upside down.

And that that word is hyphenated, so it is a word, okay?

That's upside down.

That's not the way that the world works.

Let's look at something else.

Ben Sirac said this.

He said, Blessed are those who live to see the downfall of their foes.

Now, do you need God to teach you that it's enjoyable to watch your enemies fail?

Like, is that something that goes against the values of this world?

No.

No, I'll answer that question for all of us.

Look.

If you've ever taken joy in seeing someone that you highly disagree with struggle or lose, is any can we just be brave enough to admit, has anyone ever done that at all?

Let's look at politics, for example.

Because some of y'all are lying.

Like, let's look at politics.

We're pretty divided politically as a nation.

I don't know if you've noticed that in the last few years.

It's a little under the radar, but if you look closely, you can see there's a lot of division.

And this might blow you away.

Not everyone who's sitting in this room right now voted for the same person you voted for.

And you're like, no.

No, they're they're Christians.

Surely.

It's a there's no way.

And what you'll find is that, you know, different people interpret the political system differently based on their values, right?

So I'm just telling you, and some of you are feeling very uncomfortable right now, and you maybe you have to go to a different church where everyone agrees with you, and that's fine.

Um, you just won't grow there, but because you don't grow if you're not challenged.

But like, I'm just gonna be honest.

When I I didn't really get into politics until I was probably in my late 20s, but then I really got into politics, and it was a very interesting political time.

And it was right about the time that social media is taking off, and so anytime the candidate or the president or whoever that's in power that that is not on your side of the political spectrum uh stumbles through a speech, right?

Does something foolish, looks silly, messes up, there's just videos about it all over the place.

And I've I've had several of those that I've watched, I've just laughed.

I'm like, oh, that's awesome.

That's amazing.

And I'm taking pleasure in the failure of who I perceive to be a foe, an enemy.

I I sports is an interesting way to look at this because I think sports is it's sometimes it's just sort of low-hanging fruit for illustrations, but it it kind of encapsulates the most basic parts of us as people.

If you're a fanatical sports fan, right?

Any anyone in the room, like you're pretty crazy about your team, anyone at all, you guys are just okay, fine.

Um, fine.

No, like, do you enjoy it when your rivals lose?

Even if it's not you beating them.

Oh man.

Okay.

Uh I used to have a really good friend here uh that was a huge fan of North Carolina.

If you know me well, you know college basketball, big thing, North Carolina boo, uh the Duke Blue Devils, and you're like, Justin, you're a pastor.

How can you root for the Devils?

It's a military term.

It comes from World War I.

There was a group, there was a fighting unit, they were called the Blue Devils, has nothing to do with Satan.

Get over it.

So um, big fan of the Blue Devils.

And the rival of the Blue Devils are the North Carolina Tar Heels.

And some of you, I'm sure, have bad taste.

And you root for the I'm just teasing.

Why do I do that?

See, this is it.

That's that part of me.

It's like so petty.

I'm so sorry.

Jody, I actually I know you really well, so you and I are friends.

It's good.

Um man, Jody, you remember uh the time that you guys lost in the national championship game on a buzzer to Villanova?

You remember that 2016?

Now, that year, we were eliminated early in the tournament.

And you were in the finals, and I almost had a crisis because if y'all would have won, that would have been bad for me.

But you didn't.

You lost on a buzzer beater.

Remember that?

It was the player's name for Villanova was Jenkins.

And remember he's coming down the court, and Bryce Johnson, who is your forward, didn't pick up his man, so he's like back in the lane for no reason, and Jenkins is wide open, and Jenkins shoots it, and buzzer go boom.

Remember that?

Oh man.

I watched that clip a thousand times.

Just over and over and over, and just I just ate it up.

I was like, oh, that's awesome.

That's that's not a value of the Lord.

That that's something that the world teaches us to enjoy it when your rivals lose.

When there's people who have hurt you, when there's people who have dismissed you, when there's people who have said things about you, lied about you, people who have gotten in your way and they fail and they struggle.

It is human nature to say yes.

That's not a value of the kingdom.

But but Jesus comes along.

And there's no like blessed are you when you see the downfall of your foes?

Matthew chapter 5, Jesus says, I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

And we gotta be honest.

Like, how often do we do this?

When is the last time you prayed for your enemy?

Not prayed for your enemy to fail, but prayed for your enemy.

I'm gonna be honest.

It's been a while for me.

And some of you maybe have done that this week, and you're a better person than I am.

That's awesome.

Thank you.

Luke chapter 6.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

Jesus says, if you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that?

Even sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit?

Even sinners do that much.

And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit?

Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.

Love your enemies.

Do good to them.

Lend to them without expecting to be repaid.

Then your reward from heaven will be very great.

And you will truly be acting as children of the Most High.

For he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.

You must be compassionate, just as your father is compassionate.

Jesus said that.

Can we all just admit that that is upside down?

You're not going to hear anyone else in the world tell you that.

We live in a world that vilifies people who disagree.

We live in a world, by the way, that equates disagreement with hatred.

That's our culture.

If you disagree with me, you hate me.

And I hate you.

And Jesus says to love those who hate you.

Even to the point of like lend them money and be like, I don't care if you repay me.

Like that's guys.

Does anyone want to pull Jesus aside and do go, dude?

I don't know if you know how this world works, but that is not a good idea.

It's upside down.

It's totally upside down.

Let's look at another.

Ben Sirax said, Blessed are those who do not have to serve someone inferior to them.

Jesus says in Matthew 23, the greatest among you must be a servant.

He says things like, the first will be last.

The first will be last.

What does that even mean?

What does that even mean?

The first will be last.

That is, it's better to be the one that's not picked, that's not valued, that's not celebrated.

It's upside down.

And by the way, Jesus lived this out.

Like, okay, if Ben Sirach was true, and it and it's it's only a blessing when you don't have to serve anyone who's inferior to you.

Well, we could ask ourselves a question: who's inferior to Jesus?

Anyone want to go ahead and thank you?

Like, are you are you inferior to Jesus?

Yeah, right?

Like, honestly, would any of you be like, hey, listen, I mean, Jesus is great and all, but I think if you really look at him and me and you take a hard look, I think I I could give him a run for his money.

I'm just saying.

Like anybody?

No.

Even if you don't believe in Jesus in the sense that he's God or He's divine, you're kind of figuring that out, you're here, you're you're maybe skeptical of that.

Like, still, the historical Jesus, you're I don't know anyone who's crazy enough to be like, hey, I'd like to throw my hat in the ring.

I know that we named time after Jesus, right?

We measure it based on when he got here and when he didn't, and then when that was no longer popular, they just kind of changed the language, but it's still totally the life of Jesus, whatever.

I think I think I'm at least in the ballpark.

No, no, no sane person would believe that.

And so if you're only blessed when you don't have to serve anyone inferior to you, that means that Jesus must have been the least blessed person alive because he served everyone and everyone was inferior to him.

Jesus served people left and right.

Like, there's a famous story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet, which for us is just like, ooh.

But in their culture, foot washing was a it was a cultural thing.

You walked around, you had sandals, mostly open-toed shoes, and so your feet would just get incredibly dirty.

And the lowest ranking servant in a household was always the servant who would wash the feet.

It was always like the lowest person.

And if there was no servant, it would be like the youngest child or whoever the parents didn't like.

That's the one that would wash the feet.

And this story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet, they walk in this room.

There are no servants, and you can almost imagine they're all looking at each other like, well, I'm not gonna do it.

It's not gonna be me.

No, no, no, no, no.

Not me, not me.

And they're all kind of trying to figure out which of them is gonna have to stoop down and do the lowest task, and then Jesus washes their feet, and they protested, saying, No, you can't, this isn't right.

But Jesus served them, and then he told them to be like him.

Jesus lives as a servant.

Philippians chapter 2 said that even though he was God, he did not cling to equality with God.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges and he humbled himself and became a human being, and he humbled himself to the point where he became a slave, it says.

And he died on a cross.

For who?

For us, to serve us.

That, guys, that is upside down.

And we can look at countless other examples of just crazy upside down things that Jesus taught.

We can look at generosity, for example.

Jesus taught a lot about generosity.

Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Or rather, six.

He says, when you give to someone in need, notice that it's not an if, it's a when.

Like, hey, this is gonna happen.

If you're part of my kingdom, you're gonna be generous.

He says, when you give to someone in need, don't do as the hypocrites do, blowing trumpets in the synagogues and the streets to call attention to their acts of charity.

I tell you the truth, they've received all the reward they will ever get.

But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Give your gifts in private, and your father who sees everything will reward you.

Like generosity is a it's a value of the kingdom.

And it is not a value of this world.

It is not at all.

And I honestly, if you want to see that in a really interesting way, uh one of my look this, I'm not gonna name names, but just look up how much prominent politicians give to charity.

It's really interesting.

And I'm not making this political, although I guess I am.

Um because it's it's both it's both sides.

It's amazing how often some of the people who sort of speak the loudest about how the world ought to be and show the most emotion and the most anger and outrage at how people don't have as much as other people have.

And then you can actually look up online like, how much does that person give to charity?

And it will blow you away because it's like nothing.

Because it's just it's politics, right?

It's just a show, it's it's hypocrisy on display.

But Jesus says that we should be generous, that we give.

And it's not giving to get, whether that's to get something back financially or to get attention, we just give.

We see someone hurting and in need, we we give.

We say, Yes, what can I do?

How can I help?

That's a kingdom principle.

That is upside down from the world.

The world doesn't value generosity like that.

Or if it does value generosity, it's always generosity, but you know, to kind of up your image, to be celebrated.

Not Jesus.

It's it's upside down, and we can make this long, crazy list of all the values of the kingdom.

It's it's mercy, it's forgiveness, it's undeserved love, it's generosity, it's service, it's humility, it's peace, it's it's celebrating the success of others and not only celebrating your own.

And all of this, guys, I'm telling you, it's completely and totally upside down.

And so we might ask the question, okay, why would Jesus ask us to live upside down?

Because some of the things that he says are kind of crazy.

And I say this somewhat often: Jesus is either crazy or he knows something that we don't.

He's either crazy or he's aware of something that we're not aware of.

And perhaps in him telling us to live upside down with value systems completely different than the rest of the world, is because he is aware of something we're not aware of.

I want to read to you an interesting quote from an author named Dallas Willard.

Dallas Willard wrote some really amazing things.

He passed away not that long ago.

He wrote a book called The Divine Conspiracy.

It's a really interesting, kind of heady book, but it's it's interesting.

And in it, he talks about this interesting phenomenon that can happen with pilots who, because of the rate of speed they're going, if their instruments fail, they can be upside down and not know it.

And so he said this.

Recently, a pilot was practicing high-speed maneuvers in a jet fighter, and she turned the controls for what she thought was a steep ascent and flew straight into the ground.

She was unaware that she had been flying upside down.

This is a parable of human existence in our times, not exactly that everyone is crashing, though there is enough of that.

But most of us as individuals and world society as a whole live at high speed and often with no clue to whether we are flying upside down or right side up.

See, I think Jesus knows that this world is actually upside down, that the values of our world are broken.

Broken.

And here's how we we know that.

Because very often the people who pursue the values of this world the most successfully end up the most broken.

It's something we see happen all the time in culture, right?

We see very famous, very rich, very successful people, and we see their lives completely and totally shatter.

And you can look at that sometimes and be like, how?

How?

Like, you have all of that, you're you're adored by millions of people, you have more money than I would even know what to do with.

And you come to find out that you're the most broken, lonely, hurting, desperate, dark, depressed person.

Well, it's it's because that person has given everything to the values of this world and they've done it well.

They have lived by the edicts of our culture, they have sought their happiness, they have they have lived to fulfill every desire that they have.

They have lived for the now, they have lived for themselves, they've done whatever they feel like doing, whatever makes them happy, and they've done it to the fullest, and it leaves them empty and broken because the values of our world are upside down.

And so Jesus calls us to live upside down of upside down.

And upside down of upside down is actually what?

Right side up.

And so Jesus comes and he teaches us this whole new way to live.

And it is a way of living that I fall short of so often, all of us do.

All of us do.

But we have to, we have to pause often, I think, as often as we can, and Sundays give us a good chance to do that and reflect on just how different the values of God's kingdom are from our own.

Because let's say, let's say you're someone and you haven't given your life to Jesus yet.

By the way, you can do that at any moment, because he loves you and he is ready.

In fact, we've got several people getting baptized here in just a few minutes, so we get to celebrate that together in just a few minutes.

And there are people who who have somewhat recently decided I'm giving everything to Jesus and I'm following him now.

And and that means they're now gonna live upside down, but it's really right side up.

If if you've never given your life to Jesus, then you know what I'm talking about.

You've you've lived to some degree.

Obviously, you're trying to be a good person.

I'm not saying you're selfish and horrible, uh, except that we're kind of all selfish and horrible a lot of the time.

But but you know what I'm talking about.

You've done the things that this world has prescribed to you.

You've lived it.

You you've tried to find value in wealth, you've tried to find value in status, you've tried to find value in popularity and how many likes you have and how many people uh you know approve of what you say, and you kind of do this performative thing, and you live to satisfy your desires, and you're like, why am I not satisfied?

It's because you've been lied to.

And the values of this world, they're broken.

And they do not satisfy you, they do not fill you, they leave you empty, and Jesus is calling you into an entirely different way of living, and it's upside down to this world, but it is full.

It is full.

Just take something simple like being able to celebrate when other people who are not you succeed.

Think about that.

If you actually committed yourself to that, how much joy you would feel in the average day.

Most people only feel joy when they succeed.

Most people only feel joy when they have a blessing in their lives.

And so, if that's the only joy you can ever feel is when something good happens to you, that's not going to be a lot of joy.

But what if you could actually feel true joy every time someone else was blessed?

Just think about how much more joy you would experience on a daily basis.

If you could genuinely be excited for other people's success, even if that success is not your own.

You see, when you live by the kingdom, it's upside down, but it's not.

It's right side up because this world is upside down and you're just filled.

And so if you've never given your life to Jesus, I'm just telling you, he is calling you to live totally different.

Don't ever be fooled by anyone who tries to tell you that, you know, living for Jesus is just like doing your normal thing and then you add Jesus on.

That's not how this works.

He is not the cherry on top.

He's not.

He's everything, he's the foundation, and and it it changes everything if you really give your life to him and really commit to living for him.

But I'm telling you, there's nothing like it in this world because there's nothing like him in this world.

And so you give your life to Jesus, you flip everything upside down.

It's a little bit disorienting, I'm gonna be honest, because being upside down is disorienting if you're used to being the other way.

But it's a whole new way to live.

And it's it's just it's good.

It's good.

And many of you, most of us, probably, if we're here on a Sunday morning watching from home, you have given your life to Jesus.

And and maybe you've been baptized and and you've you've you've read the Bible and you study it, and and you're like, I know all of this.

I know that look, if you've been following Jesus for a long time, virtually every Sunday should be some form of review.

Like, like most of the time you're like, I know this, I know this, I've heard this.

I've even heard Justin, you say this before.

It's true.

But like, I don't know about you.

I, even though I know that Jesus calls me to live upside down and to do things totally differently, I get pulled back into the way that this world is so easily.

Anyone else do that?

Like, okay, I'll be honest.

I'll be honest.

And worship team, you can make your way up, we'll we'll close.

And we're gonna take Lord's Supper.

I forgot that last week until after the prayer, but no, not two weeks in a row.

I got this.

Okay.

So it's about to be, and those of you who know me well know this is like a big deal.

It's about to be basketball season, and I am coaching my second grader's team, and then my eighth grade son is playing as well.

And so every time I walk into those gyms, I belong to Jesus.

I am called to be an ambassador for Jesus.

I'm supposed to behave in such a way that the referees are like, wow, that's there's something different about that guy.

That has never happened to me before.

I've never had one come up to me and do that.

It's a challenge.

But no, I'm I'm supposed to, I'm supposed to, I'm supposed to have patience, I'm supposed to be graceful, I'm supposed to be kind.

But like I get sucked back into that competitive, sometimes petty, comparative.

I get sucked into that so so easily.

And it's not just with like, like, it's weird to want to break the hearts of second grade children, but I'm probably gonna want to do that in like three weeks.

It's it's I'm just being honest, like, and I have to I like I get I get sucked into that so easily because I'm I'm I'm hyper-competitive.

And the reason I think I'm hyper-competitive is because I tend to be hyper-comparative sometimes.

And competition and comparison go together, right?

Because you want to be better than other people, and the only way to be better than other people is to beat them, it's to win.

And sometimes beating them means beating their children.

It's like my child beat your child.

I'm better than you.

I'm just being honest.

I'm being honest.

You gotta know yourself, you gotta know the darkest parts of yourself so that you can let the light of Jesus flood it.

I'm saying I know these things.

G.I.

Joe taught me that knowing is half the battle, 1980s, alright?

So, it's a deep cut for some of you.

Like, that's not good.

That's not what I want to happen, and I'm I'm super committed to it not happening.

But I'm just recognizing that even though I'm a child of God and I belong to Him and I know the values of the kingdom, I get easily sucked into the values of this world.

Right?

Like it can happen at work, it can happen at home, it can happen online.

Like all the social media apps now have these algorithms, and based on how much you pause on certain posts, it will go, ooh, you want more of that.

And if you ever find yourself going, why does it keep pulling this stuff?

I hate this stuff.

It's because you pause every single time you read it and you're like, this is horrible.

And then it thinks that you want to see more of that.

It's just this world is working so hard to pull us back into its value systems.

It's like we've we've given our lives to Jesus and now we're right side up because we're upside down, and this world just wants to pull us back, and we have to be vigilant.

We need help.

We can't do this in our own strength.

We need the Holy Spirit working inside of us, we need to surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit.

Spirit, it is not by human effort that we're able to do this.

If you just try your best, if all I do, I know it sounds silly, but if all I do at these stupid second grade basketball games is try my hardest in my flesh to be a good follower of Jesus, I will fail.

And I will fail fast.

The only way I can walk into an atmosphere like that and not be caught up in it, because sometimes it's craziness, is if I rely on the Holy Spirit inside of me to shape me and to mold me and to make me like Jesus.

And if I recognize that I'm walking into an environment that does not share the values of my king, and I have to be focused.

So, Lord, focus my heart.

There's so many different aspects of life that try to pull us back.

And if you're a follower of Jesus, you can't let that happen.

And if you if you fail, you're forgiven.

And that's pretty awesome.

But it's amazing how many regrets I have.

And I knew better.

I just, for whatever reason, took my eyes off of Jesus and sort of living, started living like the world again.

I can't do that.

Especially in times like these.

This world is crazy.

This world is chaotic.

This world is broken.

This world is scary.

I mean, I'm sure many of you have felt the heaviness the last couple of weeks with everything going on in the world right now, with the wars and potential for war.

It's heavy and it's broken, and we need Jesus really, really badly.

This world needs Jesus so badly.

That is why, as we get to Revelation in just a few weeks, that's why Revelation is a good thing.

The story that Revelation tells us, because the return of Jesus and the establishment of his kingdom for real on this earth for all time on this earth needs to happen.

Because the world's so broken.

But all that to say that Jesus is asking you to live upside down.

Anybody up for it or down for it?

I'm not sure the direction at this point.

Right?

So, here's the challenge.

If you don't know Jesus, well you've got to start there.

You can't do this on your own.

You need help.

You need him, and you need the spirit that he gives you.

And if you have Jesus, you have the spirit.

You've got to live it.

And it's hard because this world, it tries so hard to get us off track.

But this morning, the challenge is just to be reminded that you're supposed to be upside down to the rest of the world.

Now we know it's right side up, but the rest of the world sees it as upside down.

You kind of look crazy when you live like Jesus in a world that doesn't.

But can you commit to that?

Can you maybe recommit to that?

Can you just say, okay, Lord, in this world, what area of my life right now am I feeling the most tempted, the most challenged, the most frustrated?

In what area of my life am I getting pushed back into the ways of this world?

Lord, help me see it and help me flip that upside down.

That's what Jesus, and He'll do that.

He'll do that for you.

He does it all the time.

His kingdom is an upside down kingdom.

And so we've got to live a little upside down.

We're going to take Lord's Supper.

And so if you're if you're new, we do this every single week.

As you walked in, there's tables that have little cups with bread and juice.

And if you didn't grab one, go grab one now.

You don't have to miss out on it just because you forgot as you walked in.

Everyone's invited to this.

I want to read for you an incredible demonstration of the upside-downness of Jesus.

If you knew that you were going to be arrested and crucified, if you knew that you were going to be tortured and killed, how would you spend your last hours?

How would you spend your last moments before that?

This is how Jesus spent those moments.

He spent those moments praying for us.

In John 17, he says, My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you.

He's talking to the God the Father.

He says, All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory.

Now I am departing from the world, but they're staying in the world.

But I'm coming to you.

Holy Father, you have given me your name.

Now protect them by the power of your name.

So that they will be united just as we are.

During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me.

I guarded them so that not one was lost except for the one headed for destruction, as the scriptures foretold.

He's talking about Judas there.

Now I am coming to you.

I told them many things while I was with them in this world, so that they would be filled with my joy.

I have given them your word, and the world hates them because they do not belong to the world.

Just as I do not belong to the world.

They do not belong to this world any more than I do.

Make them holy by your truth.

Teach them your word, which is truth.

Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world, and I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them.

So they can be made holy by your truth.

Jesus said, I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them.

That is what this meal represents.

Every single week that we take it, it is the holy sacrifice.

And it's it's actually meant to make us holy.

Jesus says that you prayed that we would be made holy.

The word holy means set apart, it means different.

But in a godly sense, that we're supposed to be different.

We are supposed to be upside down, unlike this world.

Like Jesus, his kingdom is not of this world.

And if you belong to Jesus, you're not supposed to be of this world either.

You don't belong to this world any more than Jesus does.

You can live different, you can be different.

You've been made different because you've been made holy by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

His sacrifice, his righteousness, it covers you.

And in God's eyes, you are holy.

You are set apart.

Scripture actually says that we are now a holy nation.

That we're all sons and daughters of God, that we're all priests, in the sense that all of us are meant to live lives that help other people connect with Jesus because He's made us holy by this sacrifice.

This makes us different.

This is why we're upside down, because of what he did for us and how we respond to it.

And so, with that said, let's take this bread and let's pray.

Father God, we thank you for this bread and we thank you for what it represents.

Your body as a holy sacrifice, your perfection, your beauty, your righteousness, your goodness.

Lord, your love given up willfully so that we could be not of this world, but holy ourselves.

Set apart.

As we as we eat this bread, Lord, we thank you.

We're grateful to you.

We love you.

Help us live in response to what you've done for us.

Let's take the bread.

And his blood is precious.

Blood is a big deal.

Even my five-year-old, who I began talking about, knows that blood is a big deal because if he bleeds, he lets us know about it.

This blood is precious.

This represents the blood of Jesus.

He shed his blood for us to make us holy, to flip us upside down from this world that we live in.

And so let's pray and let's thank him for this.

Jesus, we thank you for this cup.

We thank you for the blood that you spilled on our behalf.

Your word says that blood is life, and your life was poured out to cover the death that we would face otherwise.

Not just a physical death, Lord, but a spiritual death.

But because of you, Jesus, because of what you've done for us, we've been covered by your blood.

Our sins have been covered, washed away, forgiven.

We've been sanctified, we've been made holy.

Lord Jesus, I just pray that you would help us live in response to this, to you in every aspect of our lives.

We thank you, Lord.

Let's take the juice.