Heart: Righteousness

Hi family. How are you? I’m super stoked to be here today. Thank you for joining us online this morning as well. We, uh, I have a couple of things that I need to visit with you about, so we can call this a family meeting, but I'm gonna use the term really loosely cause I’m always getting in trouble when I do that. So, number one is that whole, that SECOR cares Christmas outreach. I really want you guys to participate in that and it's not about gifts this year. It's just about providing gift cards for families because things are different this year. But the other thing that's an issue with us -- and I want to talk specifically to our online audience this morning. We have a lot fewer people actually coming through the door than normal and I get that that's with good reason, but you can jump onto SECORcares.com and help provide Christmas for families that are going to need it there as well. And the need is big this year. The need is big and we have an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a real way for kids that need it. So that's there and available online. Love to have you guys jump on and do that, or as you're on your way out this morning, grab a little tag. 

Here's the other thing we need to talk about. A lot of people asking me about what we're going to do about services with the increased restrictions going on. 
A couple of weeks ago, I caught wind that this was coming and I immediately rallied in some of our prayer partners and our elders. And we just started praying individually and together and just kind of asking, Lord, what do you want us to do? What do you want us to do with this? And what would be God's heart for us to do as a church in our community? Unanimously God said the same thing to everybody. And I love it when God does that, because then I can stand on the truth of his heart, not mine. Does that make sense? So here's what I want to say at this point that's a really big caveat at this point. We have no intention of closing our services. Now here's the deal. Let me, let me say a couple of things. I'm not trying to thumb my nose at anybody or this isn't any kind of a statement. We're going to work on keeping things socially distanced. We're going to work on doing our part. We sanitize the seats between services. There's a crew of people that come in here and do that. Like it's a big deal. We try to work really hard to go above and beyond what we're asked to do to make sure that we're making it as germ-free of an experience as possible for you. That being said, if you are immediately thinking, well, you're not working towards keeping people safe, that's just not true. It's just not true. And here's what I mean by that. You ask any healthcare professional right now, what their case load’s like, or excuse me, not healthcare, mental healthcare professional, what their case load’s like right now -- they're buried because the toll that this has taken on people, the isolation over the extended period of time has been really, really difficult. And I know that there's a lot of people that are like, you know, protecting your neighbors, loving your neighbor. And so, you need to wear a mask and here's the deal. I think you should wear a mask. I'm not going to demand that, because you're adults and you can make the right decision. But I think you should put a mask on. That being said, we're going to work at doing social distancing and doing all that stuff. I want to ask you, I want to encourage you to wear a mask, but we are not going to close our services down because the most fundamental human need that we have is connection -- connection with God first and foremost and connection with each other. And I'm done watching isolation destroy people while we sit in fear of something. I'm just not going to do it. I'm just not going to do it. And, and I know that some people are going to, I'm going to get, I know, I know I'm going to get emails. That would be like, you don't care about keeping people safe. It's not true, but I can tell you this, divorce rate is way up. Addiction rate is way up. Abuse is way up, domestic violence. Suicide is way up, it's all way up and it's all rooted in the isolation that's being caused by how we're treating this. And I refuse, I refuse to participate in that. What we are as an entity, is most fundamentally there to meet the most basic human needs, which is connection to God and connection to people. And so that's what we're going to do. And I, I, I'm not trying to pick a fight with anybody. I'm really not. This isn't about making any kind of political statements. That's ridiculous. I just want you to know that that's what we're going to do now that does have some, there are some ripple effects in our church, as far as like what, what ministries we'll also be doing and participating what won't -- the verdict is still out on what we're going to do with family ministries. We're going to wait and make that measurement here in a couple of weeks. That information will be coming, but I just want you to know that Sunday morning, our church doors will be open and we'll be doing that now. And that doesn't mean like, please, if you're like, I don't feel safe. That makes me feel less safe. I get it. I understand we have a great online experience. It's not like we're not caring about people who don't want to put themselves into, I get it. I understand that we're going to do the best we can to live in both worlds. We are, but, we need one another right now. We need one another right now. And so we're going to do that. That's, that's where we're headed. I just want you guys to know that. And so, if you're like, I disagree with that, then pray, pray with us. Cause I am diligently praying that, that the Lord would continue to give us wisdom as we navigate this. I do believe that that the good news is that I think we're kind of on final approach. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel on this. I don't know exactly how long it's going to take. Everybody has an opinion about that. And, opinions are like noses -- everybody's got one and they all smell. Right? So, I do think that we're headed into kind of the final stage of this, which is encouraging. So we got to hang in there. We got to hang in there and do this, but I just want you to know that that's where we're at as a church and pray with us, continue to please pray with us for that. Cause it's a big deal. And if you're wanting to come to church, but you like, I have the sniffles stay home. Like don't, don't put other people at risk, knowing that you're sick. Even if it's a sinus infection, I don't want your sinus infection. I don't want your bronchitis. Like, I don't want any of it. So stay home, be healthy. Enjoy your family over Thanksgiving. Okay?

You guys ready to go to work? We've been in this series and we've been talking about a couple of weeks ago during the Friday night of the weekend seminar that Brad Gray did. He talked about justice and righteousness being the same that carries through the Bible is a central part of our mission as followers of Jesus. And so, last week we talked about justice, mishpat, and we talked about how justice is this idea of distributive justice. What that means is everybody in the world is given something by God. And we, as his people, fight to make sure that no one gets taken advantage of. And so we have to care about things like social causes. We have to care about those who are less fortunate about people that are being oppressed. We have to care about those things as God's people it's sinfulness to who we are. 

This week, I want to talk about righteousness. And when we say the word righteousness, what initially happens is we start thinking about following the rules. Righteousness is basically following the rules. Well kinda, I mean, it includes following the rules, but it's way bigger than that. And so, I want to talk about righteousness. The word for righteousness is the Hebrew word tzedekah. Tzedekah literally means the right standing within relationship -- the right standing within relationships. So that relationship would be, relationship with God, and it would be relationship with one another. And so, we want to talk about that this morning. What does that look like? And what does that mean for us? And why does it matter so much? Okay. I want to begin with a passage out of Galatians 5:24-25. Here's what it says: “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” Here's what he says. When you give your life to Jesus, you make a commitment to put to death anything that gets in the way of what a relationship with Jesus should look like. That's part of the fundamental commitment to make Jesus the Lord and the savior of your life. And then he says, so if you walk by the spirit, keep in step with the spirit. Here's what that means. 
If you call yourself a Christian, act like a Christian. That's what it means. Don't call yourself a Christian and then act any way you want to, because that's not how we live. We crucified the desires of the flesh. If you want to call yourself a Christian act like a Christian. And I know that that sounds like, man, Paul, you're really beating people up in Galatians. He, well, that's not the only place that he makes a hard statement in Galatians. There's a lot of them like Galatians 6:7, “don't be deceived, God isn't mocked a man reaps.” What he selves that God's not playing around when it comes to our relationship with him. And we don't get to just say yes, I believe in God. And then come to God any way that we want. What we need to do is understand that there are boundaries. There are boundaries to our relationship with Jesus and with living within those boundaries is called righteousness, the right standing in relationship. So, I want to work through some pictures and I want to show you something that will help us kind of get at what we mean when we're talking about righteousness. Here is a map -- this map is obviously of a section of Jerusalem or Israel. This is the dead sea over here. You can see that Jerusalem is over here, and I want you to pay attention to a couple of things. Number one, look at where the Jordan river comes into the dead sea. Okay? That Delta there within a mile of that is a place called the Crossing of the Jordan. Now, many things happened there that were significant.  John, the Baptist was baptizing there. Why? Because he's Elijah and he's doing Elijahy things in Elijahy places to show people who he is. And so that's where Elijah is actually taken up, taken up with the chariot of fire. That was an old reference -- that one may have gone too deep, but that's where, so within, within just a very small picture, where those blue dashes are those, those are streams that come down into the Jordan river there. And so those are right in that area is the Crossing of the Jordan. That's where Jesus is baptized. And that's significant because that's where God shows up. Okay. Now the other thing that I want to pay attention to here on this map is this village called Qumran. Qumran is right on the shore of the Dead Sea. And it is, this really interesting place. Let me show you an aerial view of it. Here's the next photo? This is so picturesque. It is the desert and it's on the shore of a poison sea -- the nothing grows in the dead sea. This is, it's hot, it's miserable there. It is awful. And Qumran was developed by a group of people known as the Essenes. And this is super important. The Essenes were a branch off of the Sadducees and you're like, I don't know these terms. Okay. So, the Sadducees are anybody who was a temple worker. And just to give you perspective, when we go to Israel, we go and look at some of the Sadduccean houses, the ruins of some of these houses that they found. 6,000 square foot homes in the first century made out of stone. Uh, six mikvahs in them, the mikvah is the ceremonial bath, the equivalent of a baptism today. Not exactly but the same idea. Uh, they found in these homes of the Sadducees, they have found vats that had wine in them that in today's money would be worth a quarter of a million dollars each and they'll find six or seven of them in these houses. 
Like the Sadducees were making bank working for the temple. The Essenes looked at what was going on and said, this is morally bankrupt. This is wrong. And so what they did was they worked for a long time to try to reform it. But when everybody kind of pushed against themm and said, no, we're not going to do this. What they did was they rejected the temple system and they went out into the desert. And the question is why? Why would they go out into the desert? Why not go out into the Galilee, which is beautiful. It's tropical. There's lots of water. That's, I mean, it's the Galilee is my, it's my favorite place on earth. I mean, besides the fact that Jesus was there, it's just a gorgeous, gorgeous place. Why not go there? No, they had to go to the desert. They had to go to the desert. So that's a question. And then the question is, what were they doing? What kind of point were they making? Well, they went out there to dedicate their lives to the study of the text in a way that you and I have never experienced. The Essenes had a force of will about the text that we like, -- let's look at another picture, another picture. So, this picture is, if you go up, look at those coverings that are up on top, that's the kind of the tourist overlook. We'll actually go stand there if you come with me. But down in the bottom of this Valley, if you look up in this kind of middle finger ridge there, it looks like there's two caves about halfway up, right? See that that's cave number four. Many of the dead sea scrolls were found there. And what's so incredible about Qumran was that they were so committed to the preservation of the text, that what they gave us was 100% certainty that the Bible that you and I carry says the same thing that it did when Jesus carried it. We know that because of Qumran. These people dedicated their lives to the preservation of the text -- to knowing it, to studying it, to recording it. And so, they would, they hid many of their scrolls in these caves. What’s funny is, when they went to excavate them, the archeologists hired Bedouin (nomadic shepherds) to come in and, and go in these caves and bring out the scrolls. And they said they would pay them money per piece of scroll that they came, that they brought out. And so what did was, they would find these beautiful, intact scrolls and start tearing them because it was worth more money to them. I was like, no, like this is the archeological find of the century, and they're just tearing it, you know, Hey, it's worth more money that way. So they had to change how they did that. But this is cave number four. This is Qumran. We, we hike all over this area.

Let's go to the next photo. This is, Wadi Qumran. And for those of you that want to go to Israel, let me say this to you. We hike from here up to the top. I’m not kidding. And here's why we do it, because if you don't take that kind of an intense walk in 105 degree, temperatures, you don't understand the Essenes, what it took to live here, let alone thrive in a place where it rains less than two inches a year. And there is a mikvah outside of every building in their community. There's a mikvah there. Here's why that matters because Mikvahs have to be filled with living water. What that means is the water has to get there under its own power. You can't bucket the water into a mikvah. How do they get enough water to fill multiple big, multiple, multiple? How do they do that in a place like this? It's the lengths that they went to just to live here and they didn't have to, these were multi, multi-millionaires who gave it all up to move out into the desert and live on nothing. Why? Well, maybe we got to ask that question, next one, next picture. This Is the Wadi Qumran Dam. And they dammed up the water here and held it in reservoir. They cut the, what they did, that was just absolutely incredible as they took this whole mountain range and cut channels to channel all the rain down into these specific places so that it would run to where they needed it to go. It was brilliant how they did it, but we hiked this. So here's the trail at the left-hand side. Here, we hike up there and that's on its way up to what's called cave number nine, uh, where they actually found a scroll there. And we walk right by. That's kind of a cool experience. For those of you that are thinking about Israel, uh, get in shape.

Next photo, just to give you a perspective on how big this is, those that's human standing there. And they're rappelling down on the face of Wadi Qumran, uh, which is a very, uh, they do that all the time there. This is where the Essenes went. They went here to dedicate their lives to the Lord. Because this was their belief. Their belief was that they're living in this world where they're being oppressed, they're being ruled, they're being dominated. And they believed that if they could get enough people to live righteously, that God would show up Where in the world did they get such a crazy notion? Why would they feel like they need to go into the desert? And why do they think that going out in the desert and being passionate about God's word would change and make God show up? Why would they even think that? Well, their theme passage was Isaiah 40. And so I want to take a look at Isaiah chapter 40 and see what they saw. And maybe, for our world, there isn't something that we can learn in it. Here's what Isaiah 40 starting in verse one says, it says: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice…” this is going to sound familiar. “of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;”. So why'd they go to the desert? Because that is where we prepare the way. And by the way, it's always where God prepares the way for his people. It's always where God prepares the way for his people. Any time that God wants to take his people and make them ready for something, he will lead them to the desert, which is why you and I ought to be really excited for what's going to be on the other side of 2020.  I don't know about you, but this has felt a bit like a desert -- only it's 32 degrees, but you know what it, you know what I'm saying? Like, this has felt so hard and difficult. Like the desert is miserable. We go and hike in the desert and people whine and complain, and they were, and why do you hike? Cause down here, we're like, isn't it awesome? And they're like, no. And you know, what's weird. You know, what's weird is at the end of the trip at the end of the trip, everybody always says, man, I just want to go back to the desert. Why? Here's why. Because in the desert we learn to hear God's voice. There's no interruptions in the desert. There's nothing to look at in the desert, unless you really like the color tan. If you like tan, there's miles of things to look at. But there's, and it's harsh. Like even the bushes want to fight you. Everything in the desert, you don't like camels live in the desert because they're miserable creatures. I mean, they bite you and they spit at you. They do. They're perfectly tailored for the desert. The desert is where we go to learn, to let go of what we see, because God doesn't want his people to be people of the eyes. He wants his people to be people of the ears because man doesn't live on bread alone, but on every word, proceeds from the mouth of God. So we have to go to the desert. 

Well, what do we do when we get to the desert, right? “A voice of one calling: ‘in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every Valley shall be raised up, every mountain hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain’”. So what they did, these Essenes, was that they went out to Qumran to this place with these big rugged, jagged mountains and they went to work, attacking the text with the veracity that it would take to make Mount Elbert, the Park Meadows parking lot, no exaggeration. They studied passionately the word of God, so that they could understand righteousness because they wanted enough righteous people to live so the God would show up. These are people that grabbed God by the collar and said, do what you promised. Why in the world would they think that? Well, here's why, because it says: “the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” May I ask you a question? Do you want God to show up? Do you want God to show up in our culture? Do you want God to show up in our schools? Do you want God to show up in our churches? Do you want God to show up in our government, for heaven's sake? Do you want God to show up? Prepare the way!!!! You want God to show up in your family, prepare the way!!!! Prepare the way-- there's no shortcut. We can't even decide if we have time for a 15 minute devotion. These people grabbed God by the collar and gave him his whole, their whole life. And where does Jesus reveal himself, messianically? Put the map back up. Where does Jesus reveal himself? Messianically, in the Jordan river, at the place closest to Qumran! Tell me they were wrong! You want God to show up? Prepare the way! I'm tired of Christians pretending like they have some kind of relationship with God. They don't talk to him for weeks and then wonder why they don't know where he is. We don't have time to play anymore!! Amen? And if the church doesn't step up and become accounted for now, our children are the ones that will pay the price for that. What are we handing to our kids? It's listen, it's not this isn't complex math. This is one plus one. You want God to show up, prepare the way. Why and why be so concerned about like the Bible? Like why is it so all about the bar you saw adamant about the Bible, man, you're awfully fired up this morning. Here's why, keep reading Isaiah 40: “and a voice said cry out. And I said, what shall I cry? All people are like grass. And their faith is like the flowers of the field, the grass withers and the flower fades because the Lord breathes on them, the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of the Lord stands for ever.” You want to know what it means to live righteously. It's all in the word of God. Like this isn't even complex. We just don't want to do it because we read it. And it means we got to change our life. And then we're wow, does he really want us to take that seriously? Prepare the way! Listen to me. I hope that when I die that at least on my tombstone that they could write, I don't know what my wife's going to write, like, see, I told you I was sick. Something like that, probably something like that. But what I hope that they could write if they chose to was he prepared the way that there's more of God in this world than there was when I got here. And this is not complicated. It is not hard. It will just cost you everything. All of the things that get in our way, God's not going to demand that you make him Lord. But he also is not going to show up when we don't. If we want God to show up, then it is going to take a group of people who are willing to live righteously, which means that we are going to have to dedicate our lives to the studying of the text in a way that you and I have not done yet, so that when the time comes, we can grab God by the collar and say, keep your word. I know what you said.

I have all kinds of implications for this, but implication, number one is simply this. If you want God to show up, prepare the way. If you want God to show up in the middle of the mess this world's in right now in the middle of the mess, our country's in right now, prepare the way, make straight a highway for our God. It's not complicated. 

Implication number two, the call to righteousness is an invitation to unleash God's power in our lives and in the world. Because when we live righteously, God shows up and starts working, not just in us, but in the world around us. And then what happens is that we create an atmosphere favorable for God to transform hearts and lives and other people like we, we actually can partner with God in reaching the entire world for Jesus. We can do it. If we'll just be willing to prepare the way and stop making excuses for why we don't have to do what the Bible says.

Implication number three, the tension of righteousness, and this tension is revealed in how we isolate or we engage. And this is, this is kind of the balancing act for our life. Like when do we engage culture? And when do we pull away? And when do we engage this issue? And when do we pull away? Like, I don't think the Essenes had it all completely figured out. They isolated. And because of that, nobody got to benefit from their righteous living. But on the other hand of that, we can, we can trust the Bible that we have today because of what they did. Like there's this tension of isolation versus engagement with righteousness. But what I can tell you is we're not even trying to find it. We're trying to do as much as we can to still call ourselves a Christian. That's not the line we should be looking for.

Implication number four, God's presence comes with focus and discipline, not just desire. I think all of us would agree that we want God to show up, have a desire for God to show up in my life, in our world, in the things going on around us. But it doesn't just show up with desire. God's presence also shows up with focus and discipline. We've got to commit ourselves to being the kind of people who can grab God by the collar and say, keep your word.  I'm keeping mine. I’m doing my part. God, you do yours. And I know that for many of us we're like, well, I can't ever do that to God. God's given you permission to do it. Read Isaiah 40 again. He's given you permission to do it. I'm just, I'm only human. I'm sort of always gonna mess up. Listen, if you call yourself a Christian, you're not only human, you also have a piece of the divine living in you. You’re more that, you’re superhuman, you’re spiritual human, that's your super power. You're not only human. The goal of this relationship with God is that we put that kind of thinking to death so that we can experience the supernatural in the world because as we invite God more and more into our life, we're part of these things that are like, holy cow, did you see that? Yeah, that's what God does. Listen, God's presence comes with focus and discipline. Not just desire. We've got to be committed to it.

So we're going to move into communion. Uh, you guys probably like feel we made it. Listen, here's the deal. I, I want so badly for God's spirit to unleash his power in this community that we could watch God do something in our day that would be beyond explanation. And I want to be a group of people who are prepared for it. But I think for a lot of us, because we don't, um, we don't take our time with God very seriously, not seriously enough. And because of that, we wind up, closing the door on the opportunity for God to work. So as we think about our communion time this morning and this incredible example of Jesus of laying your life down, I would just ask you to talk with the Lord for a minute and then we'll take communion altogether and just a little bit, but talk with the Lord for a minute about what it means to be more serious about preparing the way -- there's no shortcuts, but there's also no better life. Let's take a minute and talk with the Lord about that. 

On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it and he said, this is my body, which is given for you. So whenever you eat this bread, remember me, let's remember him. Then after the dinner, he took the cup, and he said, this cup, this is new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. So whenever you drink this cup, do it in remembrance of me. Let's pray. Lord, we want to be people who see you work more and more and more and more and more in our world. And so God, give us fortitude. Lord, thank you for the desert that teaches us grit so that we can become people focused and disciplined to prepare the way. Lord, inspire and convict our hearts and all the ways that only, you know, we need, we trust you Lord in your name, amen. Let’s stand and sing. 

One more song. All right. As you leave here this morning, if you need any kind of prayer time with anybody, there'll be some people up here to pray with you, um, about anything, whether that's just man, just having a hard time or, you want to like, I don't feel like I'm preparing the way very well. And you want somebody to pray with you about that, whatever it is, there'll be up here to pray with you. Uh, as you leave this morning, come up here and get some prayer. But here's the deal. May you be inspired to prepare the way this week. If there was ever a time in the desert that has been 2020 that we need God to show up, it is this week. We need it for our doctors. We need it for our decision makers. We need it. We just need God to show up. So may you and I be people who prepare the way. Thanks for coming. Have a great week.