God Wants to Party With You

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- Written at the base of Mount Sinai,

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Leviticus is set in between

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the Israelites' rescue from slavery

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and their deliverance into the Promised Land

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God set for them.

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They were literally camping between stops

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on their journey.

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On the surface, Leviticus might look like

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a collection of laws that no longer apply,

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but it's really a story of God pursuing

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His most beloved creation, us.

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Since the beginning, God has always wanted

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a relationship with his people,

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but they consistently turn their backs on Him,

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just like us.

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To make matters worse, their beliefs

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about God's character were being hijacked

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by the popular culture surrounding them,

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just like us.

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Today, like the Israelites, everyone is moving

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from something and towards something else.

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It's easy to look at the strictness

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of the Old Testament, the rules, wars,

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and the brutality and think

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that God is different than the one we worship.

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Leviticus actually proves the opposite.

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If God is anything,

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He's consistent in His pursuit of his people.

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Leviticus helps bring the Old Testament

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and New Testament together as it holds some of

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the deepest revelations about God's character

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and His intense pursuit of us.

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- Yeah.

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Oh. Oh, so, so good, I think. Oh.

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Oh, can you smell that smell?

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The smell of goodness.

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Smell of -- I can't --

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Anybody want any of this?

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Come on. Come on, now. Get you some.

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There you go.

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Oh, you can't have something like this and,

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like, not share with anybody.

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That doesn't work. That doesn't work.

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Go ahead. There you go. Mmm, so good.

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This is one of the -- this is one of the rewards

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for being an extrovert and sitting in the front row.

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Yeah.

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Anyone else over here? Anybody? Come on.

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Yeah, get on that.

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You know, good stuff.

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Good stuff is meant to --

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it's meant to be enjoyed with other people.

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This is what we're talking about today.

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I'm going to have a bunch of punches, angles, insights

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to help us see that peace comes

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when we are connecting with God

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and connecting with each other,

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communal connections, community and peace.

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I got one more piece I'm going to give out. One more.

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It's always the men who are aggressive on this.

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It always -- or mostly the men.

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So hey, let's pray before I get any further into this.

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God, You are good to give us things.

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You gave some of us a little bit of brisket today.

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You've given us some music that's uplifted our souls.

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I pray right now you give us some scripture,

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some truth that's going to nourish our souls,

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that's going to help us understand You better,

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our self better,

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and what it means to have peace in a better way.

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And I pray these things according to

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the character and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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So we're in this series -- or not series.

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We're taking some weeks to take a look at

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the Book of Leviticus, which is one of

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the most controversial books in the Bible,

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one of the most confusing books in the Bible.

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It's a book in the Bible that people love to soundbite

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to be a skeptic or be a cynic.

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Like, if you're looking for a way to poke a hole

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in somebody's Christian faith,

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look in the book of Leviticus because

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you'll find something in there that's going to be

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a great soundbite to make you sound really smart

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and somebody else will be stupid

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for actually believing the Bible.

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The thing is about the book of Leviticus.

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It's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

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Those five books in the Bible are known as The Law.

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Those five books -- also known as the Torah.

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Those five books in the Bible are the parts that

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we as Americans don't like because

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we want to do whatever we want to do.

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We don't want somebody else telling us what to do.

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And in that law, we often times see that God smites.

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He still smites, by the way,

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that's not a comforting thought for us.

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He does still smite, but there's all these

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beautiful, amazing verses in there

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that just don't get noticed or talked about

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because we get upset with the difficult things in the Bible.

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Let me share one with you right now.

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It's one that you probably have never heard in church.

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You probably never heard a sermon on it,

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except I gave one a few years ago on it.

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I'm just going to give a little, little mini right now

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just to whet your appetite for what's going to happen today.

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One of the laws -- there's some laws in the Bible

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that are very temporary.

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They're there and they pass away because Jesus fulfills them.

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There's other laws that are there in the Bible

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that are meant to go on forever and ever,

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like, thou shalt not steal never goes out of business.

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Right? Thou shalt not murder never passes away.

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And normally it's just very obvious

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when you take a look at does this go away,

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this one not go away?

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There's some laws, there's some instruction from God

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that are from the beginning of the Bible

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to the end of the Bible.

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One of them is tithing.

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That's when you take the first 10%

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of whatever God gives you and God says, "That's mine,

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that's mine. I want you to return it to me."

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In the book of Deuteronomy,

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there's an amazing, generous aspect of God

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where He goes, here's what I want you to do with your tithe.

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Like, if you're finding when you got to bring it

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to the temple, you've got your first born,

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all your firstborn of your herds and flocks.

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Or if you're a gold miner, all of your gold,

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or whatever it is, it's really heavy.

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You're going to bring your 10% to return it to me.

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I got some unique instructions for them.

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Check this out. Deuteronomy chapter 14.

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Yeah, someone says.

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So, this is an exception where God says

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right here in this specific time, these people,

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look, hey, man, it's tough to kind of

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carry all your grain that way.

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Why don't you turn it for money and have a drink on me.

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This is my money. Have a drink on me.

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It says strong drink, wine.

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I'm not saying you have to drink.

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I'm not saying you should drink.

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It is a great idea for a lot of people to not drink.

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All of us have been touched too closely by alcoholism.

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I'm not ignorant of that.

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And I'm also aware that this is what God says.

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Or He says, "Anything you crave."

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Isn't that amazing about God? "It's fine.

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You crave chocolate cake. Get some chocolate cake.

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Brisket, pastries, strong drink, whatever it is."

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This is the character aspect of God,

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He wants to be enjoyed and He wants us to enjoy one another.

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That is what the peace offering is about

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that we're talking about today.

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We have different offerings.

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We had the burnt offering the first week.

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We had the offerings with the goats last week

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that we sent out, by the way, one of those goats,

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Elvis was with us.

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We just ate Elvis. He tastes really good.

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[crowd reacts]

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There is -- I've never actually had goat.

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I've never, never, never tasted that.

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But there's all these different offerings

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that are given in the book of Leviticus.

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One of them is the peace offering.

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We're going to look at today the peace offering.

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The peace offering is the word in Hebrew Shalom.

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Shalom, Shalom. Peace means wholeness, oneness,

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the way things ought to be.

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When they're disjointed and we're out of whack,

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it's just -- it's just not right.

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It's odd. It's jarring.

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Peace is when things come together.

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That's what we're looking at,

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peace and communal connection.

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Leviticus, we don't like the Leviticus.

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We don't like the Bible.

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We don't like the Old Testament because

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it stands against our American forms of spirituality.

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American spirituality, whether it's some Christians

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who practice American spirituality

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or people who are not Christians at all

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that practice a form of spirituality.

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I say we're spiritual.

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It's a number of things that are exactly opposite

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of biblical faith, a biblical spirituality.

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It is subjective, impersonal, and private.

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Subjective: pop spirituality.

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My opinion versus your opinion.

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It's just what I feel. It's my emotions.

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We never say it's my emotions. It's my spirituality.

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It's very subjective.

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It's impersonal.

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Star Wars took off.

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It was a brand of spirituality

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because it's our American spirituality.

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May the force be with you.

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The force, the aura, the light.

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It's impersonal. Not a personal entity.

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And it's private.

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It's my beliefs. It's my faith.

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You have your beliefs and your thoughts.

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I have my beliefs, my thoughts.

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They don't have to jibe or sync together.

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You've got your spirituality. I have my spirituality.

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It's private.

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Biblical spirituality is number one, it's objective.

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It's objective.

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That doesn't mean everything about my faith

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you can put in a petri dish

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and explore it in a laboratory.

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But it means this book objectively tells me

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things I should do and not do.

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That's why there's parts of this book I don't like.

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That's why I struggle with some things that are in this book.

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Everybody does. Everybody does.

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And that's the thing about modern American spirituality.

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You don't struggle with anything.

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If it doesn't feel good to you, you just eliminate it.

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Let me ask you this.

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Whatever your God is,

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how would your God get your attention?

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How would your God give you instructions

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that you don't want?

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See, unless you have an objective way

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to hear from your God, you're never going to know if

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you're actually hearing from the one true God.

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This is one of the ways that God is objective with me.

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I've got to play by the same rules,

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understand the same characteristics of God

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as people of faith who live in Pakistan

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and follow this book and who have lived in

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way back when countries that are gone, gone, gone

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and have been around forever because it's --

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The second thing is it's personal.

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It's not impersonal. It's personal.

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God exists in three forms: God the Father, personal entity;

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son, personal entity; Holy Spirit.

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The Holy Spirit in the Bible

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is frequently referred to as a he,

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not an it, not a force, not a power, not a light, a he.

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God is personal.

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And here's the big one for the rest of today,

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He's communal.

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Instead of private, we all have our private things

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and we all go in our place

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and have our own private experiences with God,

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our private --

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He's communal.

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It means that I can't experience God without you

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and you can't experience God without me

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or the person close to you.

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This is what the peace offering is about.

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Let's look at it. Leviticus 7:11. Here's what it says:

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This again is just like that Deuteronomy passage

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where we talked about fine foods,

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things you crave, strong drink.

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This is a potpourri of amazing deliciousness,

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wafers with oil because, you know,

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dry wafers aren't that good.

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Moist wafers are the way to go.

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And I know a lot of us hate that word moist,

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but it's kind of here in the Bible,

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or things with oil that are bringing flavor,

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things of thanksgiving, all this stuff.

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And this is the peace offering.

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The peace offering.

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Now this offering, these other offerings we've had

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on this that we've sort of replicated on this altar

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are about you and I having peace with God.

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This animal is being sacrificed because

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I'm reminded that I can have peace with God.

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The peace offering, however, it's a bit different

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in that the peace offering is about

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all of us having peace with one another.

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It's about God having us commune together

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and enjoy peace together.

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It's wholeness.

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This is why you can bring a lot of things

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to the peace offering: a cow, a goat, a lamb.

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You couldn't bring a bird.

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Other offerings you can bring a bird to sacrifice.

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You can't bring a bird,

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because a bird can't feed any more than one person.

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Everything you're bringing and sacrificing

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is meant to be shared communally.

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These sacrifices they bring,

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they had to be eaten in 1 to 2 days.

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Because it wasn't meant to help you with your grocery budget.

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You couldn't just salt it and say, "Okay,

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I'm going to keep this for,

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like, the next two weeks of my eating."

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It was like God was saying, "No, no, no, no.

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You're going to bring it. You're going to slaughter it.

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And it's got to be all eaten and gone in two days."

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You eat it, the priests eat it, everybody else eats it

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around you because God wants us to be communally connected.

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I believe that our form of spirituality in America today

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that many of us as Christians or church goers

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and many people who are not in church practice,

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that again, I'll tell you what it is again,

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that is private, subjective, and impersonal.

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I believe that is why our suicide statistics

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keeps going up, up, up.

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That's why our mental health statistics

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keep going down, down, down.

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Every happiness indicator I've read

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is going the wrong way in our country.

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And yet we're still a very, very, very wealthy country.

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But what we're not doing is

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we don't have communal connection.

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Long gone. Long gone.

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And when everybody in the neighborhood

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went to their own schools,

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everyone knew the neighborhoods.

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Now we all ship our kids off to different schools

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that align with where we are.

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And I'm not saying

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that's necessarily bad in and of itself,

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but just a micro slice of so much

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that is not great to keep us connected.

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Long gone are bowling leagues.

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When do we ever hang with each other, right?

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Long gone are ways that we all had common experience.

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Long gone are days when we all served in the military

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or were drafted in, or the Peace Corps or something like that.

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We had communal connections that forged us,

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long, long gone are that.

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And we're more isolated.

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And long, long gone are we're getting out

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and doing things with our neighbors.

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We're staying inside dark rooms and doing Call of Duty.

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None of those things individually are awful. Hear me.

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None of those things individually awful.

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I'm just saying look at the whole of it

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and we're very isolated, we're very unhealthy,

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and all statistics show this.

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How many of us would like to have peace,

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more peace than we have right now?

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How many of us would like to have a 50% raise?

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Come on, who wants to make 50% more money?

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You know, I would like to have 50% more money.

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I don't know if we have any board members in here.

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That'd be wonderful. [laughter]

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No, you and our board is very generous with me.

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Thank you very much.

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But, you know, we all -- We all feel --

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We all feel, man, if I had 50% more

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than what I have right now,

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most of us feel that I would be more peaceful,

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I'd have less stress walking to the --

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walking to the mailbox.

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If I had an accident, I wouldn't immediately

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be freaking out over what's going to do

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to my insurance rates.

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I could do that.

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We'd love that peace.

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Here's a crazy thing.

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You can increase your peace by 50%

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by doubling your relationships.

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Check this quote out

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from the National Institute of Health:

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That's good news, because most of us can't figure out

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how to make 50% more money than we do right now.

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But I'll tell you what, you can figure out

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how to have two friends

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because you probably don't have one right now.

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I'm dead serious. I'm dead serious.

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The average person has a hard time

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identifying two friends.

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And by friend, I'm not talking about

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someone you laugh with at work.

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I'm not talking about somebody

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who you exchange some emails with every once in a while.

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I mean, somebody you know them,

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and if they have kids, you know their kids' names

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and they know you and they know something about you

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that's unflattering about yourself,

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and you can recite three times

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you laugh your butts off together, and you can --

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It's very, very rare.

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The kind of person who will help you move.

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That's what good friends do.

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Good friends help you move.

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Great friends help you move a body.

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Very few of us have that kind of friendship.

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And I think that's part of why we're struggling so much.

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The New Testament portion of the Bible

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written after the Old Testament, obviously,

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written at the time of Jesus

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and the Old Testament is before Jesus.

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It's -- we again, the cynics and skeptics

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love to pick things out of the Old Testament, go,

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"Oh, yeah? Well, how come you're not

00:17:36

scraping mildew off your walls anymore?

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How come it says this? You're not doing that.

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How come it says you're not doing this?"

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They don't understand this basic intelligence.

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The early Christians understood all of those things

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because that was part of their Jewish faith.

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And they knew all along,

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"No, those things are fulfilled.

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Those things have gone away."

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It's not that they were wrong to begin with,

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but they were setting us up to understand Jesus

00:18:01

because Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice on the Cross.

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The understanding of sacrifice was all built on the altar,

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and they understood there were certain laws

00:18:09

that were going to go away,

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and there are certain laws that were going to be fulfilled.

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And it's pretty easy to understand which ones

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if we're just not as cynical as many people are.

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The Book of Hebrews talks about a law,

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a way of life that is absolutely rock solid,

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always true, always in focus.

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Let's watch it right here, Hebrews 10:19-25:

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It's the blood of the sacrifice

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that gives us oneness with God at-one-ment.

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So also Jesus, it's His blood that gets us one with God,

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that's what's saying here.

00:18:57

He's a priest.

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So just like there was priests

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who would assist in the killing of the animals here,

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the sacrificing of the animals,

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and be the go between between us and God,

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Jesus is our priest.

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We don't need a human being to go in between for us.

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Jesus is our priest and He's Got at the same time.

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That's what's saying here.

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So all those priests,

00:19:15

the whole priest function not necessary anymore.

00:19:17

In fact, it was never the long term plan.

00:19:20

In fact, the nation of Israel was told

00:19:21

even before the priests were instituted

00:19:23

in the Book of Exodus, "You're all a nation of priests.

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All of you are going to be this."

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I'm giving you a lot of information today.

00:19:29

Let me take a breath.

00:19:31

Everybody okay? I'm giving you a lot of Bible,

00:19:33

a lot of information.

00:19:34

We okay? Good. Okay. Let's keep going. Let's keep going.

00:19:39

I need another bite. I need --

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I need to give myself a little.

00:19:44

What are you complaining about?

00:19:46

You hear him back there, like, oh?

00:19:48

All right, let's keep going.

00:19:49

I know I'm not supposed to talk with my mouth full,

00:19:51

but it's going to happen anyway.

00:19:53

Here we go. I'll start at 23.

00:20:19

Do you see the communal connection in this? '

00:20:24

He's saying some people in the habit

00:20:27

of not having communal connection,

00:20:29

some people are in the habit of just blowing off

00:20:31

whatever it is, group attendance, church attendance,

00:20:34

hanging out with their neighbors.

00:20:36

They just choose to not be in community.

00:20:39

But you, He says, you, we need to encourage one another,

00:20:43

be firing each other up and have a place

00:20:45

and times in our schedule where we stir each other up

00:20:49

to love and good deeds.

00:20:50

Don't forsake the gathering together.

00:20:52

Don't forsake your communal connection.

00:20:54

Your faith is not private.

00:20:57

Your faith is not personal in the sense of only you.

00:21:02

Our faith is experienced when around people,

00:21:05

and that's what the peace offering shows us.

00:21:07

It's about enjoying and encountering other people.

00:21:11

One of the things I like to do

00:21:12

when we talk about encountering other people,

00:21:14

women, generally speaking, are much better in this.

00:21:18

They are much, much better.

00:21:19

Women are generally have have lower suicides than men.

00:21:23

Much lower.

00:21:24

Men are more crisis, mental health than women are.

00:21:27

Men are 4 times more likely to have a suicide than a woman,

00:21:30

3 times more likely to have mental illness than a woman.

00:21:33

One of the reasons for this, I believe,

00:21:35

is that women are better relationally.

00:21:38

They can start up conversations easier.

00:21:39

They can say, "Oh, let's just go for coffee,"

00:21:41

and it's wonderful and great.

00:21:42

Guys, like, "Hey, let's go for coffee.

00:21:44

I don't know you, first time meeting you. Ehh.

00:21:47

I'm not sure. Very nervous to talk to another human being."

00:21:56

Men, generally speaking, when relationships start,

00:21:59

it starts because we're doing something together,

00:22:02

not just sitting and talking.

00:22:03

We're doing something together.

00:22:06

My best friendships are with guys

00:22:09

who we've done things together.

00:22:10

One of the things I like to do is I like to hunt.

00:22:13

It's a lot fun.

00:22:14

I like it, especially when I'm with other people,

00:22:17

hunting and experiencing the whole thing.

00:22:20

This is the most recent thing I had on a hunt.

00:22:23

It's a pretty crazy animal.

00:22:25

It was in Texas called a nilgai.

00:22:27

It was quite a cool hunt.

00:22:29

At the end of that hunt, what's a better --

00:22:32

the best part is I get that meat,

00:22:34

I get that processed meat.

00:22:36

It goes in my freezer,

00:22:37

and then I get to cook it for people

00:22:41

that I'm having community with.

00:22:43

It's wonderful.

00:22:44

Now people go like, "Oh, isn't that gamey?"

00:22:47

And whenever someone says, "Oh, isn't it gamey?"

00:22:49

I always know one of two things.

00:22:51

One, you've never actually eaten game

00:22:52

that's actually been killed the honest way.

00:22:54

Or two, you've only eaten

00:22:56

when someone didn't know how to cook.

00:22:59

It's wonderful. It's great. It's amazing.

00:23:03

I love when we do -- when I'm at one of our camps.

00:23:06

I love to take out, I'll pull out of the freezer

00:23:08

some of the elk that I shot a couple of years ago.

00:23:10

It stays in the freezer real long.

00:23:11

I make elk balls and -- meatballs, that is.

00:23:14

And I put them put them on a platter.

00:23:16

I sprinkling -- sprinkle, sprinkle.

00:23:19

Sprinkle it, sprinkle --

00:23:20

That wouldn't feed many people.

00:23:22

I sprinkle it with some Ruby's seasoning

00:23:26

and I just take it around the campsites

00:23:29

and I go, "Hey, you want some?"

00:23:30

It's communal connection.

00:23:32

We rarely have anybody in our homes anymore.

00:23:35

We rarely cook for anybody anymore.

00:23:37

It's again, we're isolated.

00:23:39

Like, my parents would always have people over

00:23:42

for bridge parties and dinner things.

00:23:44

That was the generation, like,

00:23:46

we just don't do that anymore

00:23:48

because we're lonely and we're fragmented.

00:23:53

We don't have any peace because

00:23:55

we've gotten out of a biblical cultural framework

00:23:59

of how we operate life or how they always did,

00:24:01

and how God told us to do it.

00:24:04

It's part of why our country is so contentious as well.

00:24:07

There's a bunch of micro cultures inside of our country.

00:24:11

And that's fine.

00:24:13

We're not so much a melting pot.

00:24:15

We're a bunch of micro cultures who are kind of duking it out,

00:24:17

trying to figure out who wins,

00:24:19

who wins the national budget,

00:24:20

who wins the elections, who wins this, who wins this?

00:24:22

And often times these are divided along racial lines.

00:24:25

And that's part of maybe the extra tension we have right now.

00:24:27

When I was the little kid,

00:24:28

the dominant cultural viewpoint was white people.

00:24:32

And that worked out really well because I was white.

00:24:35

You know, the majority of people who are born

00:24:37

in hospitals across the country right now are brown.

00:24:39

They're not white, they're brown,

00:24:42

whatever shade of brown you want.

00:24:45

White babies are in the minority in maternity wards,

00:24:50

and I will be, because I plan on living

00:24:53

at least another 20 years, 30 years,

00:24:56

I will be in the minority in America

00:24:58

by the time I'm an old man.

00:25:00

And you know what? That's good by me.

00:25:03

I'm totally fine with that.

00:25:04

And let me tell you why.

00:25:06

Because no matter what happens in the culture of America,

00:25:09

I'm mostly into the culture of the Kingdom of God.

00:25:11

While other people are are fighting,

00:25:13

fighting over what happens to the culture of America,

00:25:18

I'm a part of a culture that transcends

00:25:20

whatever the lifespan of America is.

00:25:22

So while we all have our opinions.

00:25:23

I have opinions of America as well,

00:25:25

and how I want it to operate, as all of us do.

00:25:27

I'm not ignoring that, but I'm saying

00:25:29

let's recognize that there is an evil force

00:25:31

that's fragmenting and dividing us.

00:25:35

And the peace offering says,

00:25:37

can we come together and be whole?

00:25:39

Can we eat together? Can we have a beer together?

00:25:43

Can we have some coffee?

00:25:45

Can we just see our human connection with God

00:25:48

instead of always being upset with each other?

00:25:51

Peace offering is what God is trying to do

00:25:53

to get people to do that.

00:25:57

And we're missing it in our culture.

00:25:58

We're missing this entirely.

00:26:00

We're fixating on things like tobacco use,

00:26:02

which I think isn't a bad idea because we all know

00:26:04

that cigarette usage is not good for you

00:26:07

and we've had an all out war on it.

00:26:09

And I'm fine with that. That's fine.

00:26:10

Even as a tobacco user myself, I'm fine.

00:26:13

I see the wisdom of it. All good. All fine.

00:26:16

But we're not talking about the toll

00:26:19

of living biblically, which is living personally

00:26:23

and not living in a communal sense.

00:26:25

Check this statistic out.

00:26:26

I'll just quote for you because you won't believe it.

00:26:28

Here we go.

00:26:48

Man, dudes, this is huge.

00:26:51

And God knew this all along.

00:26:53

This is a big deal, friends.

00:26:55

Now, what do we do with this?

00:26:57

Let's make a jump. Let's make it happen.

00:26:58

This is all too set up to

00:27:00

there's things that we should do.

00:27:02

We're not going to have a little peace offering

00:27:04

and kill whatever it is

00:27:05

and share it with our friends on an altar.

00:27:08

But all of this is framework for how God

00:27:10

saw our lives had to work

00:27:12

and our cultures have to work

00:27:13

and our schedules have to work.

00:27:15

So let's let's make the jump of application.

00:27:17

What do we do with this? Three real quick, quick things.

00:27:19

Number one, identify who your community is

00:27:25

and tell them they are your core community.

00:27:29

Or as I would say, I got this term from a friend of mine,

00:27:32

who's your eight? Who's your eight?

00:27:35

If you're going to have a traditional funeral

00:27:37

with a casket, you're going to have

00:27:38

eight people carrying the casket.

00:27:40

Who are the eight people carrying the casket?

00:27:43

If you're going to have yourself cremated,

00:27:44

okay, Who are the eight people

00:27:46

you're going to sprinkle your ashes?

00:27:47

Who is your eight?

00:27:52

Three of mine are men in my family,

00:27:55

my son, my two sons-in-law, they are certainly three.

00:27:57

And I'm not going to tell you the other five.

00:27:59

I'm not going to tell you right now what they are,

00:28:02

partially because the next 2 or 3 are real obvious,

00:28:05

and the last two, there's probably like a ten way tie.

00:28:08

And if I start naming people,

00:28:10

people are gonna get really bummed that they're not in it,

00:28:12

when they really are.

00:28:13

There's just not that much room around the casket for you.

00:28:15

So sorry.

00:28:17

So I'm not going -- I'm not going to give them.

00:28:21

But those folks, you probably know who you are.

00:28:23

I'm pretty sure.

00:28:24

That's great.

00:28:25

Here's the thing. Here's the thing.

00:28:27

Someday you're going to carry me

00:28:29

and I'm going to carry you right now.

00:28:33

I'm going to be there for you. I'm going to laugh with you.

00:28:35

I'm going to serve you when I can.

00:28:37

I'm going to -- I'm going --

00:28:38

And you're going to carry me and I may carry you later.

00:28:42

We may as well start right now.

00:28:44

Who is it? Who is your eight?

00:28:47

Not like, "I'm just -- I just like people."

00:28:49

No, I'm not talking about that.

00:28:50

"Oh, I'm just an extrovert."

00:28:52

No, you can be an extrovert

00:28:53

and be very isolated, very lonely,

00:28:55

have no meaningful communal connection.

00:28:57

Who is it that comes and picks you up

00:29:00

in the middle of the night

00:29:01

when when Uber can't come and get you?

00:29:04

Who is it that can forward you 100 bucks

00:29:06

to get through the next paycheck, or 5000,

00:29:09

if you hang out with people who have that much money?

00:29:13

Who is it that can do that when you're in a pinch?

00:29:15

Those are the kind of folks I'm talking about.

00:29:17

Who are they?

00:29:20

Identify who those people are

00:29:22

and tell them that's where they are.

00:29:24

Number two, schedule weekly time for connection.

00:29:29

Schedule weekly time for connection.

00:29:31

When I moved to Cincinnati,

00:29:33

I was offered the job to start Crossroads.

00:29:35

I moved in November 15, 1995.

00:29:38

And when I moved over it was two breakfasts a day,

00:29:42

two lunches a day, an afternoon coffee,

00:29:44

trying to woo people and convince people

00:29:47

to be part of our volunteer core

00:29:49

and to start this thing called Crossroads.

00:29:50

And I gained from November to when we started in March,

00:29:54

I gained like 20 pounds, you know.

00:29:56

A man can't eat that much

00:29:58

and not show up around his belly.

00:29:59

So that was happening.

00:30:01

And then from that whole time

00:30:02

and then at the first year or two,

00:30:03

this would take place, I would interact with people

00:30:05

and they would drop --

00:30:06

they would say something with this.

00:30:08

They would say, "Well, I used to go to such and such church,

00:30:10

but it just got too big.

00:30:12

I used to go, but it just -- it just got too big."

00:30:16

And it was so deflating when they would say that to me

00:30:19

because they would say it to me saying,

00:30:21

"You're kind of small and insignificant.

00:30:23

So I kind of like you.

00:30:24

And if God ever blesses you, we're going to have to leave."

00:30:27

That's kind of what, you, as in the church.

00:30:30

"We're going to have to leave."

00:30:32

The truth is,

00:30:33

about 95% of churches in America are under 200.

00:30:37

95%. Why is that?

00:30:38

Because when churches 400, 500,

00:30:41

let alone four digits, five digits,

00:30:43

when it gets larger than 200, everybody in the church

00:30:47

can't be married and buried by the pastor.

00:30:49

He can't be the personal counselor for everybody.

00:30:52

And so people in the very, very small churches,

00:30:54

they don't so much have to work at their communal connection.

00:30:58

They just show up

00:30:59

and assume it's all going to be okay for them.

00:31:01

And it probably is if it's a church of about 100 or so.

00:31:03

But when you're talking about a whole nation,

00:31:05

like the nation of Israel, that didn't work.

00:31:08

It wasn't, like, "I know my priest. I know my priest."

00:31:11

No, God put into the calendar, into the week,

00:31:14

"Here's the things that you have to do."

00:31:16

That's why Crossroads we offer you a bunch of things

00:31:20

to enable you to find communal connections.

00:31:22

Serving as one of them.

00:31:23

It's not just blessing people

00:31:25

and increasing the impact of God,

00:31:26

but it's also increasing the hit rate.

00:31:28

You're going to find somebody that might be a friend.

00:31:31

Things we do, like, go to a Cyclones game, Camps.

00:31:36

Camps are awesome.

00:31:38

They're the most, in my opinion,

00:31:40

the most life transformational thing that we do around here.

00:31:42

And it's because you're with people two nights

00:31:46

in an intense environment where you're most likely

00:31:48

to be vulnerable and have communal connection

00:31:50

and maybe find a friend,

00:31:52

if you don't have one already, that could transcend Camp.

00:31:55

It's these things that are put in the calendar.

00:31:58

It's what has to happen for us

00:32:00

to take responsibility to find that connection.

00:32:03

Number three. Number three is calendar for celebration.

00:32:07

Calendar for it.

00:32:09

Jesus had this celebration was calendared for Him.

00:32:12

It was called Passover.

00:32:14

Passover was another thing that happened

00:32:15

in the book of Exodus, where --

00:32:17

I'd love to go into these stories.

00:32:18

I can't get into all these stories.

00:32:20

But basically it was this feast.

00:32:22

And every year they were supposed to have this feast.

00:32:24

While Jesus is at this feast, He makes the switch

00:32:28

from Passover to communion.

00:32:30

As the disciples at the Last Supper,

00:32:32

which is why we call this --

00:32:34

we're going to do in just a moment --

00:32:36

why we call it the Lord's Supper,

00:32:39

He flips the script on what it means

00:32:42

while they're having a form of peace offering,

00:32:45

while they're having a communal connection

00:32:47

that was mandated in the Bible.

00:32:50

What do you have in your calendar every year

00:32:54

that mandates celebration?

00:32:56

In a few weeks we have Easter coming up,

00:32:58

which is going to be a great time.

00:33:00

We're going to do our best to have

00:33:01

a great Easter weekend services.

00:33:04

But quite frankly, I've been a little bit bummed

00:33:06

with our church in the last few years

00:33:08

and I take responsibility for it.

00:33:09

I don't like it.

00:33:10

Every year, and I'm a really bad planner,

00:33:12

every year the last several years

00:33:14

we come up to Holy Week, which is the week before Easter.

00:33:18

You have Lent, which is the 40 days before Easter,

00:33:21

in which many of us,

00:33:22

because we're a personal spirituality,

00:33:24

we go into our personal spiritual mode.

00:33:27

We make it a way for us to get better.

00:33:29

I'm going to give up sweets for 40 days.

00:33:31

Okay, how's that --

00:33:32

How's that connected with communal growth

00:33:35

and deepening with God?

00:33:37

"I don't know. I'm just going to give up sweets."

00:33:39

Okay. That's today's --

00:33:40

can't pin it to anything in the scriptures.

00:33:43

Can't pin it to how it's helping the community.

00:33:45

But it's like, "Oh, I get to improve me.

00:33:47

I'm all about improving me.

00:33:48

I'm all about cutting sweets out."

00:33:50

I'm all about cutting sweets out

00:33:51

if you want to during during Lent.

00:33:53

But it's got to be something that's about God

00:33:56

and not about the goal that I have for myself

00:33:58

because that's my private brand of spirituality.

00:34:01

Are you track with me at all?

00:34:02

Are you seeing at all how these things

00:34:04

just get woven through us when we get off

00:34:06

a biblical standpoint that's ancient and works?

00:34:10

So, all that was a lead up,

00:34:11

but what was the point I was making?

00:34:13

What was the point I was making?

00:34:14

What was I saying right before that?

00:34:16

You've been with me.

00:34:17

You've been paying attention the whole time,

00:34:19

one of the few people.

00:34:20

What was I saying right before that?

00:34:21

Holy week. Thank you. Thank you.

00:34:23

Russ, Thank you.

00:34:24

Yes. The educator. Appreciate it.

00:34:26

Holy Week, I feel like we've really dropped the ball

00:34:28

on that the last several years.

00:34:30

We've just been overwhelmed. having --

00:34:31

And I was like, "Oh my gosh, all we have is Easter services.

00:34:34

There's a whole bunch of things to commemorate that week."

00:34:36

We're going to rectify that this year.

00:34:39

We're going to have a whole slew of opportunities

00:34:41

for you to deepen your walk with God

00:34:43

and connect with other folks all through Holy Week.

00:34:46

It's going to be really, really solid.

00:34:48

The last day, which is Easter,

00:34:50

I encourage you to do right now, think about it,

00:34:52

maybe reach out to your eight or your family, whoever,

00:34:56

and say, "Hey, why don't we have lunch at my place

00:34:58

or go out here and let's have a celebration."

00:35:01

Easter should be a celebration,

00:35:02

not just what happens on a stage at one of our sites,

00:35:06

but it should be with all of our friends.

00:35:08

What are your calendar systems to stimulate you

00:35:13

to have celebration and peace with other people?

00:35:17

Now we're going to do this communion right now.

00:35:23

And what I'm going to try to do is

00:35:24

I'm going to try to tie communion to this altar.

00:35:31

In fact, some of you might come from church traditions

00:35:33

where the communion table is known as the altar.

00:35:36

It's like tracing all the way back

00:35:38

to we're slaughtering animals

00:35:41

and then we're sacrificing animals

00:35:43

just like Jesus is sacrificed,

00:35:45

they're trying to do where that goes all back.

00:35:47

This -- this --

00:35:49

Let me tell you something else I don't like about our church.

00:35:51

I hate these. These suck.

00:35:55

They honestly, they're really bad.

00:35:57

Now hear me out.

00:35:58

Communion doesn't suck. Communion doesn't suck.

00:36:01

Just these things suck.

00:36:04

The reason we do it this way is because

00:36:07

we can't figure out an efficient way

00:36:10

to move 3000 people through in under 45 minutes.

00:36:15

In fact, we can't figure out a way

00:36:16

to move 300 people through in under 15 minutes.

00:36:20

And some of us would say, "Ah, well, that's why

00:36:22

I want to go to a smaller church

00:36:24

because we can get through it quicker."

00:36:25

Well, that sucks too. Let me tell you why.

00:36:28

Even there, and we've done this at some services,

00:36:31

you come forward, you dip the bread in the thing

00:36:34

or you fed the wine, you have the wafer.

00:36:36

That is the early followers of Christ

00:36:39

would look at that and go, "You what?

00:36:42

This is communion?"

00:36:45

No, because America always tries to systematize it.

00:36:48

Let's get it efficient.

00:36:49

It was known as the Agape Love Feast.

00:36:52

When Jesus has the Last Supper, He flips the script

00:36:55

on what the elements are in Passover.

00:36:57

He's grabbing for things.

00:36:59

He's not saying only bread and only wine,

00:37:03

or juice if you have a problem with wine.

00:37:07

And this is why the first century,

00:37:09

if you don't know this story,

00:37:11

you won't understand First Corinthians chapter --

00:37:15

Let me get to it here.

00:37:17

First Corinthians where they're abusing communion actually.

00:37:21

They're actually taking this Agape Love Feast,

00:37:24

an entire an entire meal.

00:37:25

That's the way communion was initially in the early church.

00:37:27

An entire meal was celebrating one another,

00:37:29

every communal connection with one another.

00:37:31

And by the way,

00:37:32

this represents the body and blood of Jesus.

00:37:35

Now watch how the apostle Paul calls people out.

00:37:38

Here's what he says"

00:37:48

-- Which is really weird.

00:37:50

They're coming together. How is that?

00:37:51

Well, because they're all getting wasted.

00:37:53

They're having a massive gluttony gluttony fest --

00:38:10

See this whole thing about us being divided,

00:38:12

it's not a 21st century American thing,

00:38:14

it's a human thing.

00:38:16

These are even all people of the same skin tone

00:38:18

who were at Corinth. Right?

00:38:20

It's natural for us to be at odds with one another,

00:38:23

which is why God says no, man, peace.

00:38:26

You gotta figure out a way to bring you people together.

00:38:42

So they have all the food spread out

00:38:43

and one person like, "Oh, I'm famished."

00:38:45

They scarfed down the food and they eat all the food

00:38:48

while the other people, there's none left for them.

00:38:50

They're not thinking about communal connection

00:38:52

where we all share.

00:38:53

And there's the wine there.

00:38:54

The wine, and they're getting wasted.

00:38:57

They're just downing wine.

00:38:58

They're not seeing the significance of it.

00:39:00

They're downing it and they're getting drunk.

00:39:02

That's because communion for them

00:39:04

was an entire communal meal.

00:39:06

It wasn't a this or a cup and a bread.

00:39:10

It was built on the sacrificial system

00:39:12

and all of them having peace being with one another.

00:39:23

If you're just going to gorge yourself,

00:39:25

can't do that at home?

00:39:26

If you're just going to get wasted,

00:39:28

can't you do that in a bar or in your basement?

00:39:31

Why do you do that here?

00:39:33

So all that to say, this here,

00:39:37

no matter what form of communion has ever happened

00:39:39

in any church building, it will always, always

00:39:42

come short of the biblical model of communion,

00:39:44

which is in a home with community and a full meal.

00:39:48

But, it's still worth celebrating

00:39:51

because we get to remember the sacrifice of Jesus.

00:39:54

So it's still good. It's good.

00:39:56

Let's do that right now.

00:39:57

Take that top little layer off.

00:40:01

Take that top, little layer off.

00:40:06

Oh, man.

00:40:07

It's just why I hate these things.

00:40:08

I can't even get the get the freaking layer off.

00:40:12

Oh, there it is. Okay. All right.

00:40:16

By the way, if you've never received Christ,

00:40:19

if you've never come into a biblical spirituality.

00:40:22

You can do that right now.

00:40:23

This could actually be your first communion.

00:40:25

You can right now say, "Jesus, I want you in my life.

00:40:27

I want you as my sacrifice.

00:40:28

And right now, as I consume this,

00:40:31

I want to consume You and Your Spirit.

00:40:33

Would You fill me up.

00:40:34

And I'm going to give the rest of my life to You."

00:40:36

This could be your first communion.

00:40:37

Take that -- Take that bread, your wafer.

00:40:40

This wafer represents the body of Christ.

00:40:43

This wafer represents the burnt offering.

00:40:46

This wafer represents the peace offering.

00:40:49

This wafer represents someone who was broken for you and I

00:40:56

so we would no longer need to be spiritually broken.

00:40:58

The body of Christ, break, take and eat.

00:41:07

Peel back the next part.

00:41:11

This is representative of the blood of Christ.

00:41:17

And He told us to do this.

00:41:18

Just like we have remnants of the blood from last week

00:41:22

still on some of these these stones here.

00:41:25

So there was a blood stained cross

00:41:28

in the Middle East about 2000 years ago.

00:41:31

Over 2000 years ago, about 2000 years ago.

00:41:34

And this blood we remember

00:41:36

how Jesus spilled blood for us,

00:41:40

just like animals spilled blood to bring peace

00:41:44

and to bring wholeness.

00:41:45

He spilled His blood to bring peace to us,

00:41:49

to bring wholeness with God, oneness with each other.

00:41:53

Do you recognize before we do this,

00:41:55

do you recognize how much He loves you?

00:41:57

Do you recognize how important you are to Him?

00:42:00

Do you recognize that no matter what your problems have been

00:42:03

or what you've done before today,

00:42:05

or how you might have been on a wrong path spiritually,

00:42:08

do you recognize how pleased He is

00:42:10

that you're present with Him

00:42:12

and you're celebrating the ultimate sacrifice.

00:42:14

He loves you so much and He's proud of you,

00:42:18

proud of you being here

00:42:19

and proud of you celebrating who He is.

00:42:22

The blood of Christ shed for forgiveness and oneness.

00:42:26

Take and drink. Mmm.

00:42:34

Lord, You're good.

00:42:36

Thank You for bearing with

00:42:39

frail, fallen people like myself.

00:42:42

Thank You for blessing us with community and intense

00:42:46

and intensive relationships, for the opportunity.

00:42:49

God, we give You the rest of our day.

00:42:51

We give You the rest of our week.

00:42:52

Lord, we want to be different.

00:42:54

We want to be one with You.

00:42:55

We want to be one with others.

00:42:56

Bring us peace in Your Name, I pray, Jesus. Amen.

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