First Things First - Reconcile

So I don't say this too often on Sundays, but amen, right?

How are you doing this morning?

Everybody doing well?

Man, it's it's such an honor to be able to share in moments like that, to share in in moments where people are going all in with Jesus, to be a family.

And especially for me when there's when there's kids and moms and children and whole families that are going in with Jesus together.

What an amazing, amazing moment.

And uh what one of the things I love so much about this church is that it's so different from my experience growing up.

I remember my parents dragging me as a young child and me being like, oh, I don't want to, I gotta wear dress pants, and I hated wearing dress pants, and and we'd go to church, and and I loved our church growing up in a lot of different ways.

Uh valuing a child's experience was not a high priority for them.

And so my parents used to say, hey, just here, color on this or draw on this and act like you're paying attention, just don't make any noise.

And that's what I did.

But but here it's such the opposite.

We love children so much because Jesus did.

And seeing those kids go all in, actually, we got a we got a story in.

These story cards, if you're new at the back four columns, we also have them at a bulletin board over in the uh over in the coffee shop.

They're there for you to share your story of how God is changing your life, of how maybe he's used you to change someone else's, because we are a church that believes in God changing lives.

That's why we exist.

And this person wrote that his hands and the ability here to connect with family and communicate God's message has changed my family's life.

I spent three years arguing with my kids all the way to Catholic Sunday school every week.

I'd spent nearly a year for communion prep, dragging them into church, kicking and screaming because they hated the sit and stand church.

One visit to his hands, and my youngest says on the way out, Mom, when can we come back next week?

I wish I knew the rest of what he said, but those few words rocked my world and I blocked everything else out.

And you know, this is just what the person wrote.

Uh, nothing against any Catholic church or anything like that at all.

I mean, followers of Jesus, we go by a lot of different names and we do things a lot of different ways, but Jesus valued children.

Actually, there's a story where this child wanted to come to Jesus, but his disciples thought he was too busy, and so they said, no, he's he's too busy for this little one-year-old child.

And Jesus says, No, bring the children to me.

And so I love this church for so many different reasons, but one of those is that we are a church that is committed to making sure that we never, ever do anything to keep children away.

But it's the opposite.

We want kids dragging their parents here.

Because what's what God's doing in their life is just as real as what he's doing in ours.

I got a few quick announcements.

Sorry, that was just a little tangent.

I just I was really touched by that.

Uh, there is so much going on here.

And if you're new, welcome to His Hands.

We are a family of people that love one another very much.

We love one another because Jesus loves us, and we believe that the best way we encounter God's presence is by experiencing that love.

So if you're here for the first time, please know that you are loved by us, but more importantly, you're loved by God.

If you ever want any more information about who we are or a chance just to ask some questions, every Sunday after every service we have a little QA get together.

It takes about 10 minutes.

You can leave your kids checked in until it's done.

It's in room five, which is right to the right of this room, if you exit to the right.

So if you're here for the first time or maybe relatively new and you want to ask some questions, find out more, I'll be in there.

At the very least, I'd love to meet you.

So stop by for a few moments.

We've got a lot going on this month.

Uh our chili cook-off is next Sunday, which is uh really exciting.

I've said for the last few weeks that there is zero spiritual significance whatsoever.

We could invent one.

We could say that Jesus said to come together and share meals together, right?

And a little tiny serving of chili, it's like a super small meal.

And it's just a chance for us to get together and do a really strange version of Lord's Supper.

Um, but it's gonna be next Sunday after the 11 o'clock service.

It's really simple.

We've done it for years.

Uh, you just, if you want to enter a chili, if you want to be in the contest, just sign up.

It's it's really not that competitive, it's just a lot of fun.

And then after the uh after the second service, we'll hang out.

Those of you here now that come to the nine o'clock, if take your choice if you want to come to nine or come to eleven.

If everyone that normally comes at nine comes to 11, we're gonna have an interesting Sunday next week.

It's gonna be a lot of fun.

We're gonna get to know each other so, so, so well.

Um, so if any of you want to come to the nine like normal, go run an errand, grab a bite to eat and come back, that'd be awesome.

But I'll leave it up to you.

It just depends on how you feel about close spaces with a lot of people.

Um, I actually enjoy that.

I think it's a lot of fun.

So, either way, we're gonna have a blast next week.

Dave Ramsey starts this Wednesday night.

That's right.

You should be excited.

We have 137 people signed up so far to take this class.

And that blows me away.

That's more than twice as many as we've ever had before.

If you're unfamiliar with Dave Ramsey, he's helped millions of people get out of debt.

He's helped millions of people have freedom in their finances.

And so we offer this course, it's it's Dave Ramsey's official course.

It's just happening here.

We're we're hosting it.

It's an amazing experience, and there's still time to sign up today if you want to be part of that.

It costs$100 to take the class, that's what the materials from Dave Ramsey cost.

It's$125 if you need childcare for the nine weeks that that class runs.

But do not let$100 or$125 stand in the way of you having the best year you've ever had financially, because Dave Ramsey's stuff, it works because it's based on scripture, it's truth, and there are millions of people that swear by it.

The average person that takes this class has$8,000 more doll to work with 90 days after taking the class than they had when they started.

So just think about that and please sign up because we want to help as many of us as possible.

Have a great year financially.

That's really important to God, I think.

Home groups start this week.

And so, just like Bill talked about, if you haven't joined a home group, this is the time.

Home groups kick off.

Some of the groups actually meet today.

And so, if you'd like to get to know people here, sign up at the Connect Desk.

They'll help you get plugged in.

We have groups for married couples, men, women.

You will find a group of people that are friends you just have never known you've had.

So I encourage you to do that.

But pray with me and let's talk about what we're gonna talk about today.

Jesus, thank you.

Thank you for allowing us to be together and worshiping you.

Thank you, Jesus, for letting us share in amazing moments, life-changing moments like the ones that just took place when people went all in with you.

And you, Jesus, have gone all in with us.

We just follow in your footsteps.

Just like that last song said, We we follow you, Jesus, and we follow you because there's no one better to follow.

There's no one that has ever lived, there's no one that's ever breathed that is more worth following than you, Jesus.

And it's our honor to be your followers.

And as we look at your word today, Lord, just inspire us and teach us so that we can have the life that you have for us.

And we ask all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Well, we are in the middle of a series right now called First Things First.

We believe very much that God has good things in store for our lives.

In fact, in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, the Bible says that we are God's masterpiece.

Ephesians 2:10

I don't know if you looked in the mirror this morning and said masterpiece to yourself, but that's what God says about you.

He says, You're my masterpiece, and he has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we could do the good things that he prepared for us long ago.

It's amazing that God loves us so much that he created us, but he actually prepared good things for our lives.

And we said this last week, and I know it bears repeating, especially after some conversations I got to have this this past few days.

Good and easy are not the same thing.

I know many of us have already had in just a short few weeks of 2015 some incredibly difficult circumstances to endure.

I've spoken with families that have already had loss, have had to deal with death, have had to deal with disease, and I know that life is not easy, and God never promises us an easy life.

I love how straightforward Jesus always is, but he's promised us good things.

In fact, in Romans chapter 8, verse 28, the Bible says we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Romans 8:28

So I look at that verse and I believe that everything means everything.

It means the good, it means the bad, it means the amazing, it means the terrible, that God can take everything that comes into our lives and he can work it into something good.

So if 2015 has already knocked you back just a bit, if it's already been difficult, please know that the fact that you're here today means that God is still working.

He is not done.

And you can give him everything you have, the good and the bad, and he will work it into something good for you because he loves you.

We believe that in order to experience those good things, in order to experience the joy that comes from those good things, we have to focus on a few things ourselves to help us experience that joy because it's possible to have good things and experience no joy through them.

I've had whole seasons in my life that I look back on and I go, wow, that was a good time in my life.

Why was I unhappy?

Why was there no joy?

Why was I not able to experience the wonder and joy from all those good things that God was doing?

And so we're committed to starting our year by focusing on the first things first.

You can call it going back to the fundamentals, back to the basics.

But we're gonna focus on the first things first, those those core things that Jesus values so much that he actually tells us, do this first.

Focus on this first.

And if you haven't been here for the last few weeks, feel free to catch up online or with the message app that we have on smartphone apps.

Just listen to it and catch up.

But this week, we're gonna be in Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

We're gonna look at a first thing that Jesus tells us to do in Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

So if you have a Bible, feel free to turn there.

He's gonna be talking to us about the idea of reconciliation and the importance that God places on us living in a right relationship with one another.

In us getting along with one another, in us having good relationships with the people in our lives, whether that's family, friends, co-workers, he's gonna place a massive, and I mean a massive emphasis on us being in a right relationship with one another.

It's Matthew chapter 5, verses 23 and 24.

Matthew 5:23

Jesus says, therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar first, and there's our first thing first, first go and be reconciled to them, then come and offer your gift.

So you're you're making an offering to God and you realize, oh, I've got a problem with someone, leave it there and then go be reconciled first.

Now I said a few moments ago that Jesus is going to place a massive emphasis on reconciliation here.

And if you're reading these words and you're going, okay, that that sounds sounds nice.

I I get that.

It doesn't seem as intense as maybe I let on, maybe I oversold it a bit, I can do that, but I promise you I'm not.

See, we have to understand the mental picture that the people Jesus was originally talking to would have had as he said these words, because it's very different than the mental picture that probably came into our minds.

If you're if you're someone, for example, that that gives, and thank you by the way for doing that, for helping us show as many people in this community God's love as possible, all the things God's doing with it, it's awesome.

But if you're someone that gives, when you hear these words, you probably think of going back to the back and going to one of the kiosks at the back columns or writing a check, maybe giving online, and and you're thinking, okay, I'm doing that.

I'm at the kiosk, I'm punching in my information, and as I'm doing that, I remember that I have I have some beef with a friend.

Let's just call this friend Morgan because that is a reasonable unisex name.

Okay, so Morgan, you and Morgan have a problem.

And you realize that as you're about to enter your information, you say, Okay, I want to obey Jesus, I want to follow him, so I'm gonna stop right now.

I'm gonna go to the lobby, I'm gonna shoot Morgan a text.

Morgan, I'm really sorry about last week.

I should never have said that about your mom.

Right?

You say that, and uh, and Morgan sends a message a few moments back, no problem, not a big deal, we're good.

And so, relationship restored, reconciliation complete, you're now free to go back in here and finish giving your offering.

May have taken you five minutes or something like that, but you have followed Jesus' words to a T.

And if you've ever done that, you have exactly obeyed Jesus.

You've done just what he's saying here.

It's just that for us, that's not a really inconvenient experience.

And we live in a world that values convenience very much, right?

We're Americans.

We have so many lines that we have to hurry up so we can wait in.

We have lines that we want to get through so we can go to other lines, right?

I sit in a line to get on 575, and I want that line to go fast so I can get in the line at the drive-thru, because that's a line I want to be in.

We know what it's like to wait in lines, and this whole world is all about convenience for us.

To the point where it's really jarring sometimes when we realize that life does not seem to value convenience as much as we do when we have those moments in life where we say, hey, this world, it's not it's not parting so that it's fast and easy for me.

It's actually getting in the way.

Life is supposed to be convenient, right?

But it's not sometimes, and that's hard.

The people that Jesus was originally talking to here, though, they they did not live in a very convenient world.

It was a very, very different world, and in order for us to understand the emphasis that Jesus is placing on reconciliation here, on the importance of us living in a right relationship with one another, we have to understand the incredible hassle that this illustration would have brought to the minds of his original listeners.

All of us know what it's like to be part of a hassle, right?

How many of you work in downtown Atlanta?

Or you work in the city?

Okay, a few of us.

So if that's you, you endure the hassle of traffic every single day.

You you drive to work and it's a hassle, you come back from work, it's a hassle.

That means that almost a year ago, I think it's 11 days from now, it'll be one year, you endured Snow Apocalypse 2014 and the amazing hassle of being stuck on the roads for hours and hours.

There's actually a really funny picture online, if you ever want to check it out, that takes a shot from a television show called The Walking Dead, which is about a zombie apocalypse, okay?

Very realistic show.

And uh, it's a picture of Atlanta and the roads, because it takes place in Atlanta for a portion of it, I think.

And you see no cars going into Atlanta and just wall-to-wall cars coming out, because that's what a zombie apocalypse does to Atlanta.

Turns out one inch of snow does the exact same thing, right?

And so there's a really funny picture.

You can look it up online of a comparison of that shot from the show and a shot from almost the same spot in Atlanta during that snowstorm, and it's hilarious because it's the same exact shot.

One inch of snow, zombies, same thing.

Causes the same amount of hassle for all of us that live in Atlanta.

When I moved here, I was a sophomore in high school.

And I lived in Missouri, Wisconsin, Tennessee, but we had never experienced anything like Atlanta traffic.

In fact, I remember my parents taking pictures of the traffic in Atlanta to show to our family back home because we knew they would not believe us if we told them what it was like just to drive in Atlanta.

It's a hassle.

But we're used to that hassle.

Not all hassles, though, are bad.

In fact, sometimes in order to experience something amazing, a great moment in our lives, we have to endure a lot of hassle to have that experience.

How many people have been to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, just out of curiosity?

It's an amazing experience, but man, you want to talk about a hassle.

Oh my goodness.

So a few years ago, two years ago, this month actually, I got to go to Disney World.

My wife's parents were going.

They they were amazing.

They paid for the trip, they paid for our hotel, they paid for tickets, and that's really hard to say no to.

So we went and we took my two-year-old son at the time, Liam, he's four now.

It was the first time I had been there since I was six years old.

I don't have many memories from my experience as a six-year-old.

Teacups, Space Mountain, that's about it.

But but I'll never forget some of the memories I have from going two years ago with my son.

It was an incredible experience.

And I gotta admit, as an adult, I was blown away.

I mean, the production value, the facility, the food, the rides, the light shows, the fireworks, all of it was incredible.

I can't even imagine what it must have looked like through the eyes of my two-year-old son at the time.

But the thing that blew him away, the thing that he'll remember the most, that he still talks about the most, it was the characters.

All the different Disney characters that he got to interact with, right?

If you've ever been there, some are dressed up like big mascots.

They have these huge costumes, these huge helmets that they're wearing, and they look like the characters from Toy Story or something like that.

And he met Goofy and Donald and all the characters like that.

Those people have a tough job, by the way, because A, it's hot.

I cannot imagine what it smells like in those costumes.

I cannot imagine.

How do you clean something like that?

Um, I think it just comes with the job.

I was so impressed by those people.

Now, the people I was most impressed with, though, were the ones that aren't wearing a full costume.

They're not wearing a mask or anything like that.

They're in makeup, they're in in dress, but they're actually acting and interacting with you face to face.

They're the characters you see in the movies, but they have to have conversations and they have to stay in character all day long.

If you've ever had to fake it for a day, you've ever gone to work upset, but you've had to smile the entire day, right?

That's hard.

Now imagine having a bad day and going to Disney to be a Disney princess and bring joy to the hearts of a thousand children, right?

That's what they have to do.

I'm so impressed.

And they're good.

They are committed.

It's really amazing.

If you've never seen it before, there was actually a video that hit YouTube this last week.

And in just a few days, it got almost two million views.

So it went viral.

And it's a video of this little girl interacting with Gaston from uh from Beauty and the Beast.

And so, in case you're not one of the two million, just watch this and I think you'll see what I'm talking about.

For the championship of our wrestling in my village.

Right here.

Are you ready?

Someone in the meantime of the Kaby, say, That's awesome.

I love how he stays in character the whole time.

His hand is licked, and he still doesn't break character.

Uh, that's an amazing video.

I think it gives you an idea of what I'm talking about.

The most amazing thing about that video, though, is that little girl, she goes to church here.

She's part of our family here at his hands.

How awesome is that?

How awesome is that.

Her name is uh her name is Carol Kay's.

Her dad Scott's been one of our teachers and his kids for years.

And uh and I actually heard about that video.

I checked it out.

I was I was laughing because that is Carol.

I've known her since she was in the first grade.

And her brother Peyton is the one that posted it online.

He wants to do video stuff for a living.

That's what he wants to be when he's older.

He's in eighth grade, I think, this year.

That's the first video he's ever put online, and it got two million views in a week.

So what a good confirmation of that.

But I I love that.

It really does illustrate, though, what I'm talking about.

These people, they are, they're on from the time the day begins till the time it ends.

And the one I remember the most from my experience in Disney World with my son was Merida, who is the princess from Brave.

That was kind of the new movie.

We actually have a picture of my son with Merida.

And so you'll see it here in a second.

He's gonna be standing next to Merida any second.

Now there he is.

All right.

There's Liam, two years old with Merida.

I don't think that's her real hair.

If it is, wow.

Okay.

So this was a really cute moment.

My wife loved it because my wife loves any excuse to take a thousand pictures in a day.

Like a thousand pictures.

She has this tradition every year at Christmas where she makes a shutterfly book, if you're familiar with that.

Uh, Shutterfly is just a service where you upload your pictures and they make really nice books to remember life by because the pictures you have online aren't enough, right?

And uh and she uploads these, and every year she's like, oh, I this is gonna be a long time.

I have 5,000 pictures I have to sort through.

And I'm like, why?

Why?

How do we take 5,000 pictures a year of our children, right?

And we've got to whittle it down to the one that we want to keep, but that one is her favorite.

When he got there, he was eyeballing that bow the whole time.

She's talking to him, and he's just looking at the bow.

And so she realized that and asked him if he would like to hold the bow, and he lit up.

He lit up.

He loved it.

He loved bows and arrows at the time, and so there he is holding that bow.

He's smiling.

That was picture number 580 that day, and it was wonderful.

See, but that's not the reason I'm gonna remember that experience forever.

It's not just how amazing Merida was being in character the whole time, it's not just the fact that Liam got to hold this bow and smile.

It's not the magic of the magic kingdom.

The reason I'm gonna remember that character and that moment for the rest of my life is because we waited in line for two hours just to see Merida.

Two hours.

And see, we didn't realize at the time we got in line that's how long it would take.

Because, like I said, as Americans, we're familiar with lines.

We know what it's like to wait in line.

That was one of those deceptive lines where at first it's straight, and you can see Merida just a few feet away, so it tricks you.

You're like, oh, this won't take very long.

You stand in line, and then at a certain point, you get a new viewpoint, you get a new angle, and you see that the line turns and becomes this long, winding, circular line, and you thought there were 10 people in front of you, you realize now that there's there's 80 people in front of you.

We didn't realize that until 30 minutes in.

And so we had this conversation trying to whisper so Liam didn't hear, like, should we bail?

Should we go?

I mean, this is a long line.

And Megan said, Well, we don't know how long it's gonna take.

Let's just let's just wait it out and see.

At an hour in line, we were past the point of no return.

We were at the point where like, we're we're finishing this line, there's no way we're gonna leave now with nothing to show for it, without a picture for Shutterfly.

We're not leaving until we have this picture.

It's gonna be the greatest picture of all time, right?

I'll never forget that an hour and a half into that line, Merida took a 20 minute break, and that's totally reasonable.

That's reasonable, like she's in character all day, she's gotta use.

The restroom, right?

That's normal.

Maybe she needs to eat.

But I was infuriated when they came out and they said, Hey, Meredith's gonna take a 20-minute break, and they say it to the children like you're standing here, the kids are here, so they just bend down.

Like Meredith's gonna take a 20-minute break, but she'll be right back.

And they leave, and you just want to scream words.

You cannot scream at Disney World.

You're not allowed, right?

That was the longest 20 minutes of my life.

But finally, when it was done, we were there, we got the picture, and it was great.

But man, what a hassle.

And in reality, it was just consistent with the whole hassle of Disney World.

It's an amazing experience, but it is a it is a hassle, okay?

There's travel involved.

For us, that was an eight to ten hour drive in the back of an SUV.

My parents, my wife's parents drove.

I was so grateful for that.

If you've ever been in the back of an SUV with a two-year-old for eight hours, that's an experience you just need to have.

And I'm so thankful.

Well, I'll put it this way.

At first, I was so thankful that they have DVD players now in cars.

They didn't have that when I was growing up, and so we made a lot of road trips as kids.

We just had to entertain ourselves.

But I'm like, well, at least there'll be something to watch.

And we had all these DVDs, and I'm going, okay, they're gonna be kids' movies, but we're going to Disney World, so we need to get in the spirit anyway.

We'll watch a bunch of Disney movies that'll make time go by.

I was not prepared for my son watching the same Disney movie eight times.

The whole time.

After every movie, Liam, do you want to change it?

No.

Let's watch it again.

Okay.

All right, how many times can you watch that movie?

And apparently as many as it takes.

That's just how kids are.

So that was a bit of a hassle.

When we got to the park, you wait in a huge line just to get in.

You get fingerprinted, which is interesting going to Disney World, but I guess that's appropriate.

And so finally, once you're in, if you've never been before, you're in this huge courtyard and it's massive and you're bombarded.

It's sensory overload.

The first thing I remember noticing were all the different languages that I'm not used to hearing, because people visit from all over the world.

And when you hear people talking in English around you, your brain just tunes it out, unless you want to hear.

But when you hear languages you're not used to hearing, it's like ADD instantly.

You're like, what is going on?

What are people saying?

You feel nervous, you're suspicious, you're turning, are they spies?

What's going on, right?

You don't know what to do.

And so that's what I was doing at first.

And then, about 10 minutes in, you meet the most evil people on the face of the earth.

They're the people that sell you stuff at Disney World.

And they are heartless people.

They used to have hearts, they used to feel things, but they've looked so many parents in the eye and said to these parents who are trying to please their children, this hat costs$40.

They've looked so many people in the eye and told them that their heart is gone.

They have no soul left.

Because children see these things in Disney World and they have to have them.

These are like items that will make their dreams come true.

They're custom tailored for children.

These children have watched movie after movie that you realize when you get to Disney World, these movies are just commercials to buy stuff at Disney World.

It's a ploy.

The whole thing's a ploy.

And you get there and your children look at you and they say, Can I buy that?

And you look at them and you say, Yes, because you don't want to crush their spirit, and then you pay$40 for a hat.

For a hat that your child's gonna grow out of in a week.

That's what you pay, right?

But you have to do it, you have no other choice.

And these people are evil and they take your money, and then you have to go to all the different areas in Disney World.

There are so many areas.

There's Frontier Land and Adventureland and Pioneer Land and Tomorrowland.

There's so many lands in Disney World.

And you just go from one to the other, and every time you go to one, there's more people selling you stuff, and you get to wait in the lines, and that's what you have to do, just to wait in line for two hours to meet Merida.

And I imagine, looking back at that experience, if when it was our turn to see Merida, if we're the next in line, and let's just pretend for a moment that my two-year-old was very articulate.

If Liam had turned to me and said, Dad, I just remembered I got in an argument with a friend back in Atlanta.

So let's go.

Let's get back in the car, let's drive to Atlanta.

I want to hash things out with this friend, then we'll come back and we'll do this whole thing all over again.

Let's go.

What would I have said to my son?

My brain would have short-circuited, I can tell you that.

Because see, at that point, after all the hassle of the travel and the money and the lines and all the languages and everything else, I would have just said, no, you are seeing Merida.

We are seeing Merida.

We're gonna smile.

I don't care if you're hungry, I don't care if you have to go to the bathroom, just pee as you smile, and we'll buy you really expensive clothes in the gift shop as soon as we're done because we are seeing Merida.

I will die before we leave this line.

That's how committed I had to be.

I mean, that idea would have been ridiculous, but what you have to understand, and I'm not exaggerating this at all, I promise you, is that to the people that Jesus is talking to, what he is saying in these few verses would have sounded just as ridiculous as saying, hey, what if your child, after traveling to Disney World and waiting in line and spending a bunch of money, what if at the very moment your child's there to do the thing they they came to do, they said, no, let's go back home.

I need to take care of something important, it would have sounded just as preposterous.

Some translations of this same scripture mention the word temple.

In fact, in the New Living Translation, these same verses say, so if you're presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar, go and be reconciled to that person, then come and offer your sacrifice to God.

So the temple in Jerusalem was a big deal.

And the time in which most people would come to offer a sacrifice would have been Passover.

Now, Disney World, just a magic kingdom alone, 45,000 people visit it every single day.

It's crazy.

But the temple at Passover, over 200,000 people came to visit the temple at Passover.

200,000 people.

And we're not talking about travel and the hassle of travel like sitting in the back of an SUV watching the same Disney movie over and over again for eight hours.

We're not talking about that.

We're talking a week's journey on the back of a donkey with your whole family going to Jerusalem, and then you get to the temple, and there's a hundred thousand plus people there, and you wait in that line to get in.

And the line just to get in the temple would have been so long, it would have taken so long just to make it there, and to make it even better, because a long line to get into the temple is good enough, you get to do it upstairs.

There's these things called the southern steps.

It's an incredibly intense, long, steep staircase that you get to walk in as you go into the temple.

So you're waiting in line, you're going uphill, and finally you make it into the temple.

The first area was this massive courtyard.

It's called the court of Gentiles.

And the first thing you would notice when you're in the court of Gentiles are all the different languages that you've never heard before, because people are traveling from all over the known world at that time to come to the temple to offer a sacrifice.

So you're hearing Aramaic and you're hearing Greek and you're hearing Hebrew, and you don't know what to do, you don't know how to process it.

The next thing you'd encounter are the most evil people in the world at that time.

The priests who are selling you things in that courtyard.

And we made a joke about, or I made the joke rather, about people in Disney World being evil.

I'm sure they're not evil, they're wonderful, wonderful people, right?

But these guys, these priests that were selling people things in the temple, they really were evil because we're not talking about a ripoff, we're talking about robbery.

See, if you came to the temple to offer a sacrifice, that would have happened in one of two ways, and usually a combination of both.

There was a monetary offering that you would give.

But see, the the thing is, the temple had its own currency, and you could only make an offering to the temple in the temple's currency.

It wasn't a currency that was used anywhere else.

And in order to use that currency, you had to exchange your money in the currency from your place in living to the temple currency, and the exchange rate was robbery.

It was theft.

They would charge these massive amounts of money just to change your currency to theirs so you could make an offering to God.

You would also bring an animal sacrifice.

But before you could present that animal as your sacrifice, which was just a foreshadowing of Jesus paying the ultimate sacrifice and becoming that sacrificial lamb for us, you would have to have your animal, your lamb, your doves, whatever animal you brought, you would have to have it inspected by the priests to make sure it was worthy of sacrifice.

And just in case it wasn't, don't worry, because they just so happened out of convenience to have pre-approved animals right there.

The only problem was they cost about 50 times more than the price of those same animals outside the temple gates.

We have historical documents of the prices they charge, 50 times more.

And it's common knowledge at this time that your chances of having a non-temple bought animal approved for sacrifice were slim to none.

So first you have to pay all this money to have your currency exchanged, the temple's currency, then you have to pay just to have your animal inspected, which was required.

And then when they said no, which was inevitable, you had to pay an absolutely enormous amount of money to purchase one of their animals.

It was absolute theft.

And when you understand that's what's happening in the temple, this place that's supposed to be a place dedicated to the worship of God.

And by the way, if if you couldn't afford those prices, you were told to leave.

And you could not worship God in that temple.

You understand Jesus' behavior in John chapter 2.

John 2 · chapter mention

If you've ever read this before, you think, man, Jesus loses his temper, he goes off.

What's he doing?

John 2, verse 13, it says it was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.

John 2:13

So Jesus went to Jerusalem in the temple area.

He saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices.

He also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money.

Jesus made a whip from some ropes and he chased them all out of the temple.

He drove out the sheep and the cattle.

He scattered the money changers' coins over the floor.

He turned over their tables.

And then going over to the people who sold doves, he said to them, Get these things out of here.

Stop turning my father's house into a marketplace.

Stop profiting and acting as if it's from God.

And can we stop for a moment and give Jesus a round of applause?

Because that is amazing.

That is our God.

We have a God that will not stand for anything coming in between us and Him.

And that's what Jesus did here.

But for the people in His day, that was just part of the temple experience.

It's what you had to do.

So after waiting in this long line, after traveling for hours and hours, days and weeks even, finally you're able to move forward in the temple.

You have your sacrifice, you've spent your money, you had to move to the next area, the next little land inside the temple, which was called the court of women.

And as you went to the court of women, you had to perform a ritual hand washing.

So there's another line you have to wait in.

And then when you walk through the gate to the court of women, there are all these collection boxes for you to put your money into to donate to the upkeep of the temple.

And you didn't have to do that, but you were expected to, and people were watching.

People would say things if you didn't, and then you got to move into the next part of the temple.

It's called the court of Israel.

And that meant another ritual hand washing.

It meant more collection boxes, it meant more lines, and then finally, finally, you get to wait in line to make your offering.

You've traveled so far, you've waited so long, you've been ripped off.

You wait for hours to make your sacrifice, to make your offering to God.

And Jesus says, at that moment, at that moment, if you realize that someone has something against you, that there's something between you and someone in your life, at that moment, just leave.

Leave your offering right there.

Get back on your donkey, go back to your hometown, find that person, talk to them, work it out, and then come back and do it again, which means more lines being ripped off again because I'm sure they wouldn't keep your animal for you until you came back.

That's what Jesus is suggesting.

So just think about what that must have sounded like to the people who originally heard it.

Jesus is saying that that's how much we should value reconciliation, that we should value living in right relationship with one another.

Why?

Why would it matter that much to Jesus?

To God that we live in right relationship with one another?

Why can't we just say, hey, God, I'm here to be good with you?

I'm here to be in a right relationship with you, and these other relationships, they're not as important.

What does it matter if I'm estranged from this person?

What does it matter if I've cut this person out of my life because they upset me or offended me, or maybe they've done that to me?

As long as I have a right relationship with you, what does all this matter?

And I understand that mentality.

I understand where it comes from.

At first, it even sounds really, really righteous and really good.

See, we have to understand some things about Jesus, some things that he taught to get why he values this so much.

Jesus was often talking to religious leaders.

They were usually trying to trip him up to get him to say something that would get him in trouble.

They had a lot of arguments with Jesus.

They lost a lot of arguments with Jesus.

It's really hard to argue about God and win when you're arguing about God with God.

That's a tough thing to do.

And so they would usually leave these arguments upset and just decided in their heart to kill him instead.

And they would find out later it's just as hard to kill God.

He gets back up and it's annoying.

It's just what he does.

But one of these arguments is in Mark chapter 12.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

We see one of these debates happen.

It says one of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate.

He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, Of all the commandments, which is the most important?

Jesus replied, The most important commandment is this: listen, O Israel.

The Lord our God is the one and only Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.

The second is equally important.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

No other commandment is greater than these.

So this man asks for one commandment, Jesus gives him two because Jesus is so generous.

Jesus says, love God with everything you've got.

And equal to that, just as important in God's eyes, love your neighbor as yourself.

See, we have this tendency sometimes to compartmentalize our lives.

We do that very, very easily.

I do that in my life, right?

I have my family life, I have my work life, I have my physical health, my financial life, I have my spiritual life, and they're all they're all pieces of the same pie.

But in reality, life is just life.

We can't compartmentalize our spiritual life, our life with God, and pretend as if it's separate from the life that we have with the people in our lives.

Jesus never severed those ties.

In fact, he brought them together.

He always joined together, loving God and loving people.

He teaches us that our relationship with God is very much affected by our relationship with people.

I get to have amazing conversations with awesome people that love God that come from a lot of different perspectives.

It's something that I enjoy very much.

Every once in a while I'll have a conversation that's that's challenging for me.

Usually it's challenging because uh because I have to keep my mouth shut.

And that's hard for me to do.

I'm not good at that.

And sometimes someone will say something to me that really angers me, and I have to choose whether to say something or not.

And usually that just means, okay, God, is this gonna be helpful?

I don't want to, I don't want to cause unnecessary conflict.

I'm not afraid of conflict, but but what do I do?

I I had a conversation a few months ago.

I just had to bite my tongue.

Because A, I I love the person that I was talking to very, very much.

And this person was sharing some of their thoughts about about his hands, about this church that obviously I love very much, but but I often look at us as a church and say, hey God, what do we need to improve?

What do we need to do better?

And I'm very open to people having ideas.

If you've been here for the last few years, a lot has changed and a lot will change in the next 10 years.

We should always be changing and moving forward.

This person had a thought about us, uh something, an idea for me to nibble on.

And so with kind of eager anticipation, I asked them what it was, and they said, Well, there's this there's a problem that I have with his hands.

I said, Okay, well, what is it?

I said, You love people too much.

It's not about people, it's about God.

That was one of the biggest bite my tongue moments I've ever had in my life.

Because I'll just say this I would gladly spray paint on the front of our building, his hands church.

We love people too much.

I would gladly broadcast that to the world.

And that's not just because it sounds nice, that's because it's consistent with the teachings of Jesus.

I get the idea of that, I get that it sounds really spiritual.

Hey, we focus too much on loving people, and somehow that's gonna distract us from loving God, but it's just not consistent with what Jesus said in Matthew 25.

Jesus says to his followers, hey, one day you're gonna hear me say, For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was a stranger and you invited me into your home.

I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you cared for me.

I was in prison and you visited me.

Then these righteous ones will reply, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink, or a stranger and show you hospitality, or naked and give you clothing?

When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?

And the king will say, I tell you the truth.

When you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were doing it for me.

He says, Hey, you want to do something for me?

Do you want to do something that blesses me?

Then serve someone.

Love someone, serve the lowest of the low that you can find.

And if you do that, it's like you're doing it for me.

In John chapter 21, Jesus is talking to his friend Peter.

John 21 · chapter mention

And he says, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Yes, Lord, Peter replied, You know I love you.

Then feed my lambs, Jesus told him.

Jesus repeated the question, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Yes, Lord, Peter said, You know I love you.

Then take care of my sheep, Jesus said.

A third time he asked him, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time.

So he said, Lord, you know everything.

You know that I love you.

And Jesus said, Then feed my sheep.

And if you're reading this for the first time, you might think, man, that guy really cares about his sheep.

Right?

Like he's an animal lover to the nth degree.

But Jesus didn't own sheep.

In fact, Jesus didn't own anything.

He's not talking about sheep.

He often called himself a shepherd, a people.

He's talking about people.

He says, Peter, if you love me, help my people.

In Mark 10, 9, Jesus said, Let no one split apart what God has joined together.

And Jesus always joined together the idea of loving God and loving people.

So if you're someone that's ever been shown the opposite of love from people who said they were doing it out of a duty to God, I'm so sorry.

I'm sure they're great people.

They just got it wrong.

It's easy to do.

Because according to Jesus, you cannot separate the two.

He refused to let people separate the two.

Anytime he talked about showing him love, he said you show him love by loving others.

He joined those things together.

He's the one that put those things in the same sentence.

What's the greatest commandment?

Love God with all you've got and love others as yourself.

So I'll just say this as a church.

We're about to have our 10-year anniversary, which is awesome, but we're just getting started, and we will always be a church that loves people a little bit too much.

I'm okay with that.

And see, we're doing that because we just want God to feel that love.

I want Jesus to feel loved by me.

And I've just learned in my life that I can't say, I love you, God, but I don't love people so much.

I can't say, God, I'm yours, I'll serve you, I'm just not willing to serve people.

I can't even say, God, I'll obey you.

I will submit to you, God, but I'm not willing to submit to a mere person because I'm just so focused on submitting to God.

That's not how it works.

Jesus says, You want to show me love?

Love others.

He always joined, loving God and loving people together.

That's why he values reconciliation so much.

That's why it's so important to him that we live in a right relationship with one another because those two things are so connected.

And he says, go to great lengths, great lengths to be reconciled.

In Philippians 2.

The Bible says, though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges.

In other words, he left heaven.

He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

And when he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God, and he died a criminal's death on a cross.

He did that for us.

And those verses show us the lengths that Jesus was willing to go to to be reconciled with us.

To reconcile us to God.

In fact, in 2 Corinthians 5 19, the Bible says, For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them.

And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

Jesus values.

Us being in right relationship with one another because it affects our relationship with Him.

And Jesus asks us in Matthew 5 to go to great lengths to have reconciliation with the people in our lives because Jesus went to unimaginable lengths to bring reconciliation between us and God.

I love that we have a God that never asks us to do anything that He hasn't already done himself.

See, I know this is a really tough topic.

It's one of the things I love about these series is when we pick a series, this is what usually happens for me.

I'm like, oh, first things first.

We'll look at all the times in Scripture where Jesus said, do something first.

And I have a few in mind usually when I do that, I'm like, oh, that'll be awesome.

Then I get to one like this, and I'm like, oh.

Didn't think about it.

That's a hard one.

That's reconciliation.

That's just, that's tough, right?

There's a lot of nerves that cuts pretty deep for a lot of us.

See, I know we fall into a lot of different categories.

Maybe some of us here have something that's come between us and a friend or a family member, and if we're really honest, it's something minor.

They said something, they didn't say something, they made a mistake.

And we've let that small thing stand in the way between us being in the right relationship with them.

And we can look at that and say, okay, God, if you went through that kind of lengths, if you went through that kind of hassle to be reconciled to me, I'll go talk to that person.

Maybe for some of us we're the ones that made that offense, and we need to go and apologize, and that's not fun, but it's not that big of a deal.

I also know that some of us in the room have been hurt tremendously by people, have been wounded deeply by people who may not be remorseful at all.

And please understand that Jesus is making a point here.

He was totally fine using very exaggerated situations to make a point.

So if you're someone who's been very, very wounded in the past by someone else, he's not saying that you have to go and physically talk to that person face to face.

Maybe for you, simply asking God for the strength to pray for that person.

That might be the equivalent of you leaving that offering at the altar, just to pray and say, God, help me forgive.

God, help that person change.

Doing that for you might be the hardest thing in the world.

But I know from experience, and especially from the experiences of people I know that have been hurt very deeply, that while that idea might sound so unpleasant, it might be so hard, if you could be free from the hurt, from the anger that that person has caused you, it would bless your life more than you can imagine.

And forgiveness is the only way.

It's the only way.

Maybe some of us in here have been the ones that have hurt others.

And if that's you, I'm guessing that that means you feel a lot of shame and a lot of guilt, but you can let go of that.

You can leave everything at the altar and you can go and find reconciliation.

It might just be an apology.

That apology might not be accepted right now.

But you can have reconciliation.

I look back to my life, and I have seasons in my life where I had a relationship that I care about that was severed, and there was no reconciliation between me and that person, and those are dark seasons in my life.

We have a whole year ahead of us.

For the rest of this year, if the relationships you have in life that are the most distant, that are the hardest, if those became reconciled, how much better would it make your year?

How much lighter, how much freer?

How much would it change the burden that you carry every single day?

We have a God that's all about us losing our burdens.

He removes those burdens and he says, reconciliation is the way.

But it actually should be because here's the thing: at the end of the day, we have a God that will work with us, He will work through us, He will work in us to help us be who we need to be so we can find that reconciliation with people in our lives, so we can value that as much as Jesus.

But see, I don't want to leave this room today without celebrating the fact that you and me have reconciliation with God.

That Jesus, when he says, hey, leave it all at the altar and be reconciled, he's saying that because he left it all.

He left heaven, he left the privileges of being God, and he came to this earth and he died so that you can have reconciliation with God.

He earned that for you.

He has made that reconciliation possible.

That's why in 2 Corinthians it says we have the message of reconciliation, not the task.

Because that reconciliation for us has already been won.

And if there is anything in life that is worth celebrating, if there's anything in life that's worth singing about, it's the fact that you and me, through no effort of our own, are in a right relationship with God.

Because God has done it for us, because God has done the heavy lifting, because God's the one that left it all, and he made the journey, and he went through the hassle of bringing us back to himself.

And we don't have to do a thing, but accept it.

Is that worth celebrating this morning?

Hallelujah indeed.

That is awesome.

That's everything.

For all of us today, I know this is a touchy subject.

It's touchy for me.

Trust God.

He doesn't just give us things to do, he empowers us to do them.

He gives us his spirit.

Trust him and enjoy the reconciliation that you have with him.

And let that bleed out to the rest of the relationships in your life so that you can have that with everyone else.

Let's pray together.

Let's go together and celebrate what he's given us.

Jesus, thank you so much for your love.

Thank you so much, Lord, that you came for us.

That you're the one that made the journey.

You're the one that left it all at the altar.

You went through the hassle.

You went through the ordeal of us being reconciled to you.

And Lord, if there is one person in this room that hasn't experienced the peace of living life knowing that we are reconciled with you, that we are good in your eyes because of what your son Jesus has done for us, because we are covered by that.

I pray, Lord, right now that they just accept it.

That they just pray and say, God, I accept it.

I accept what you've done.

I accept the peace that you've won through Jesus.

Bless us this week, Lord.

Help us to live in right relationship with one another.

Help us value peace and let nothing come between us, God, because we are a family.

We are a family united by you, Jesus.

And we pray all this in your name.

Amen.