Sermon Blog

A scripture, a quote, a thought to sit with — drawn from the sermon archive. Each one links back to the full message, audio included.

August 9, 2026 · Matthew 5:17–20
The Old Testament and the Talmud
“So I started asking myself a lot of questions, and then I started to see these questions pop up. I don't know if you've seen this : should we even call it Judeo-Christian culture? Should you just say Christian, get rid of the Judeo part of it? … And I'm like — the Ten Commandments are still Jewish. This is the kind of thing we are facing right now. That's why I'm passionate about trying to talk through it. And the question of the authority of what I'd call the Hebrew Scriptures is where you have to begin in order to deal with these complicated questions about the Jewish foundation of our faith as Christians.”
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July 14, 2024 · Ephesians 3:17–19
Reconnected to the Power Source
“He asked that you would have the power to understand the un-understandable love of God. I love this idea of how God's love is unknowable, really. It's unfathomable. God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived. You can't think of love any higher. You think of the highest form of love, and that's God — yep — but he's more than that. Because you can't conceive of it. And he's saying that he wants you to know what's unknowable — that he would supernaturally just give you a deep understanding that is not possible from human means alone. Have you ever had those moments when the love of God comes over you? I'm going to say to you — I've seen the power of forgiveness be one of the most palpable demonstrations of love. … And when you forgive it, the release in yourself, and for others, is magnificent. It is the most powerful force on earth, when love and forgiveness are manifested. How wide and long and high and deep — like, all the dimensions — filled to all the fullness of God. We could have a love that is much greater than anyone could ever experience naturally. And this is part of the love that empowers amazing Christian marriages, right? When you just have that love that overcomes whatever difficulties in the way, because you both are sealed with the love of God, the power of God.”
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June 18, 2023 · Matthew 11:25–27
Knowing the Heart of the Father
“The only way you get to know the Father as Father in that special way is through the Son. As you become a friend and a sibling with Jesus, then you are connected into the family of God in a very specific way. It's the only way. And you have to realize that the greatest thing, perhaps, that Jesus gave to humanity in his life was a relationship with the Father. You might say — wait a second, what about forgiveness of our sins? Isn't that greater? Well, forgiveness of sins has a purpose. It was so that you could be in relationship with the Father. He died on the cross so that you could have a relationship with the Father. This is a powerful and a beautiful thing that Jesus gave to us. And notice what he's talking about here. He says that no one knows the Father. This is all about knowing the Father. That's what Jesus came to do — to know him, and then you know the Father.”
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June 4, 2023 · Luke 12:35–40
Getting Ready and Being Ready
“I love how Jesus does that upside-down kingdom. In that day, masters controlled servants. There was slave and free. It was a big thing. This would not happen. And what Jesus is saying is that it happens. We think of it now and go, oh yeah, Jesus is a servant to all of us. No — he's the King. And he says he's going to serve you. He's literally flipping everything around, and purposely, to tell you he loves you so much that when he asks something of you, he's going to do even more. He's going to ask you to be a servant. Not so that he can be served by all these servants, but so that he can serve you properly. So he can take care of you. Isn't that amazing? Where his heart comes with all this. He's not saying, be a servant because I need servants. He's saying, be a servant so I can serve you the best of the best. The kingdom of God is an upside-down kingdom, where God will himself serve the servants who were faithful and who were watchful. So this is our call. That we would prepare our hearts to be prepared — to be ready. Because God wants us to be a church that's ready to respond when Jesus calls.”
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May 28, 2023 · Luke 24:49
Empowered
“So I wait. And then what I do is — I wait — and I listen to hear what he says. And waiting is not passive, by the way. It's very active. I'm looking at waiting — it's like waiting for someone to return home from a long journey. And you know your kids are coming home — and they haven't showed up. You're just looking at the door — staring on the horizon — and waiting — but you're watching. That's how we wait. We actively wait on the Lord. … He's studying his book — and we're going to go through the steps. This is — this is how it works — when you're actually waiting. No one likes to wait. … Waiting on the Holy Spirit.”
“Allow him to — let us be a church of people who are more empowered — that we're marked by the power of the Spirit, right?”
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May 21, 2023 · Romans 8:17
Co-heirs with Christ
“And yet we are co-heirs with him. This is a pretty powerful idea — if you really want to think of yourself as being part of the spiritual royal family. I am part of the spiritual royal family of God. That's who I am. Now — I do not believe it's because of what you do. Okay? … So when you put your faith in Christ — you are part of the royal family. … However — the question becomes — how do I identify whether I really am part of the family, or not? … If indeed we share in his sufferings. What? Being part of the royal family means I suffer. I thought it meant I sat on a throne — and I was, like — telling people to give me drinks, and stuff. You're, like — wait a second — maybe I am part of the royal family. I suffer. Do you see that? How do you know you're part of the family? … Do you suffer? Have you suffered?”
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May 14, 2023 · John 1:12–13
Child of God
“They're not a child of God in the same sense as everyone's a child of God. Okay? He rules it out. … And you don't become a child of God by just the natural order of creation. There's a very special category of child of God. … That brings you into a new category of connection to the Creator. … A very special, intimate connection to the Creator. And how do you get to that space? It's completely through faith. … This is why we talk about Christianity — it's very important to understand the exclusive nature of the name of Jesus. He allows you to enter into a new category of being. He allows you to enter into a new category of relationship with the Creator. … (Matthew 18:3) Isn't that really interesting? The way to become a child of God is to have faith like a child. It's a very simple, very pure, and a very strong, and very true faith. I believe in Jesus.”
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April 30, 2023 · 1 Corinthians 1:2
Saints
“This is just to help us think of each other differently. Isn't it different if you think of your friend as a saint? Oh. The second thing is — I think that God calls us to embrace our own personal sainthood. In Protestant circles — I think we probably call ourselves sinners more than saints — don't we? I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. All we talk about is our sinfulness. Okay. Yes. We are sinners saved by grace. Not denying that. That's who we were, I would say. We were sinners saved by grace. Now we're saints — who were made saints by grace. … Right? It's not how Paul calls us. He's, like — what up, sinners? That's not how he talks. That's not how Jesus even talks, right? So — why do we do this? … But do you really believe that you're a saint? … That's why you're a saint. … We need to embrace the saint as part of our identity. And I really think — what happens if we start to think of ourselves this way? We start to redefine ourselves as saints, in our own hearts and minds. I think sometimes we look at scripture — Jesus calls you friends. (John 15:15) We're co-heirs with Christ. (Romans 8:17) We're going to talk about that later. He's not saying you're a sinner. That's not how Jesus is thinking about you.”
“You will now let us live into the image of Christ.”
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April 23, 2023 · 1 John 1:8–10
I Am Forgiven
“And so what we hear here is that, in order to experience the power of forgiveness in our life, I need to confess, like I said. That's why we're doing it. That's why it's part of who we are. And we need to let go. And so it's important — that we'll get a little bit to this later — it's important that you practise confession of your sin. … I would even argue daily is the best. … Get that off your heart. Get that off your conscience. And look what he will do. He will purify us from all unrighteousness. This is important — because a lot of people — they feel so beholden to patterns of sin that they're, like — I'll never be able to get rid of this. This will always be who I am. First of all — it's not who you are. Second of all — you will be purified. You have hope. He will deliver you from this.”
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April 16, 2023 · 2 Corinthians 5:14–19
New Creation
“You love yourself more when you love other people. You're able to see the good when you're caring for other people. And it starts to destroy some of these parts of the old self. So make sure you don't get self-focused. That's another problem with all this self-talk. You are a new creation. … You're a new creation to do good for others. So it can't be self-obsessed. This isn't just self-help, right? … I really believe that. … The last thing I want to point on this is that you need to have confidence in God. He's the new creator. Do you trust your identity to Jesus? That he knows who you really are? … I think we have to be really honest. These are things that are going on in people's hearts. … Because we don't have to define ourselves. He's defining us.”
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April 9, 2023 · Luke 24:36–43
Resurrection Identity
“Easter can't be something you visit once a year, right? It's got to be something we live in. So we're going to take a few weeks. We're going to talk about what it means to have a resurrection identity. We're going to talk about the reality of our identity. Who we are. … That's going to be born out of Easter. What do you identify as? You know — we hear this question all the time. You know — some identify as, right? It's a very popular thing. And I think it's really important as Christians that we realize — I identify as a follower of Jesus. I identify as a child of God. I identify as one loved by the Most High. That's who you are.”
“Let us revel in our resurrection identities.”
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April 2, 2023 · Luke 19:38
The Return of the King
“I think it's just really important that we keep always meditating on what it means for Jesus to be king in your life. He is the king. He's coming into this place. And he rules over the entire universe. You read Colossians. … These people are blessing him. These people are doing miracles. Why can't you do miracles? Because it's all his. He owns it all. Jesus is king. But guess what the good news is? Jesus is king — but he's present within you. The kingdom is within you — because the Holy Spirit of God is within you. (Luke 17:21) Everywhere you go — you have his presence.”
“Let us celebrate with him today.”
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March 26, 2023 · Luke 9:62
The Cost of Following Jesus
“This is the way the kingdom works. I'm king. I must come first. If the king said — here — come join me. I want you in my circle. You need to come right now. You would go — and your family would understand. Guess what? The king is here. Of the universe. He's saying — come now. I must be your first priority. … This is all about identity, by the way. Who do I identify as? Am I a follower of Jesus? Or am I a good family man? Am I a good — look — so many good things I could be. Am I a good disciple? That's the very first thing. Am I a follower of Jesus? You know what? … You are dealing with the king of the universe. Are you really going to follow him? If you don't — you don't get it. You don't get who he is. You don't understand the mission.”
“Now — let us chew a little bit today.”
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March 19, 2023 · Luke 6:3–5
Lord of the Sabbath
“How much time do you have to do it? Work that out in the Spirit. I actually do it on the Saturday — because it's the day I can spend with my family. But do you have time set aside? … I like 24 hours. I think it's really helpful. So I'd say — pray about that. … But if not — then are you setting aside time clearly in your week — where you are not allowing that other side of work and productivity to be what defines you? Now — what do I do with my Sabbath? I do housework sometimes. I love cutting the grass on my Sabbath. … I don't want to create the rules around it. What I'm just asking you is to think about the principle of Sabbath that Jesus, I think, is affirming here. He's the Lord of the Sabbath — meaning that he still has a Sabbath. He still thinks it's a good thing. But it's a thing about freedom and life. Do you have time set apart in your week — where life and freedom is the theme?”
“So today — as we come to the table — let us receive the holy, consecrated — the body of Christ — as the bread that gives us spiritual life.”
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March 12, 2023 · Luke 5:26
Healing and Forgiving
“I've seen people who were drug addicts — and they're able to help people — and they're able to heal other brokenness. This is what God does. … That's one of our stories to be. And I bet you each of them have experiences of that, right? I'm sure if you've been a Christian for long enough — you've had that time — and you've had that happening. … There's deeper stuff that God got to keep working on — and stuff that comes back to haunt us — and stuff that we need to realize that we are persons that always need to visit the doctor. We need to be always coming to the healing.”
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March 5, 2023 · Luke 4:24
Mission Rejected
“I think the first thing I want to point out is — we need to focus on the Father's love. God loves you. So when we're rejected — and this is hard — because sometimes God is, like, abstract, right? But it's actually the most concrete form of love. … And so he's able to sit in the love of God. So one of the things we have to work on at all times is to continue that relationship with the Father — to keep that love connection. … It doesn't destroy our hearts or souls. And I'm going to point this out here. I think part of the Father's love is the people that he provides you. Right?”
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February 26, 2023 · Luke 4:1–2
Facing Temptation
“It's basically saying to God — I need you more than this. God, I need you more than sugar. I need you more than chips. I need you more than meat. I need you more than Facebook. This is what we're saying if you practise this, right? … And this is exactly what Jesus teaches us. He's giving up this — and he's in this moment of weakness — and this hunger is coming to him. And then it says that the enemy comes to him — the adversary. And I just want to point out that I believe this enemy is a real being. … However, there are spiritual forces at work — that he's like the Godfather. … The good news is Christ himself is strong.”
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January 22, 2023 · Acts 28:30–31
Only Eyes for Jesus
“It is so easy to get distracted by things. Even family — I have realized that. Jesus comes first. Jesus actually said to us that we need to love him more than our mother and father. Which is a big deal, because he tells us, if you do not love your mother and father, you are in big trouble. But you have to love him more. He was — on the first — to say, "If you do not hate your sister, brother" — for him — he is like, "Oh, Jesus, what kind of language is this?" He is very serious about it. And I started thinking, why would you say that? I have to hate my family member, compared to how much I love Jesus. And what I started thinking about this a lot was — I was supposed to hate my children? He is trying to get — out. He literally tells us to love your neighbours. He is not telling you to hate. What he is trying to point out is that you need to put him first. And there is a reason for that. Because you are best at loving your children, best at loving your parents, best at loving your siblings, best at loving your friends, best at loving your church, when you are loving him first. They get all the — residue — effects of it. So you love Jesus first. It is a powerful thing. And so I need to focus on Jesus. I didn't realize that.”
“" — Let us now help anything.”
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March 6, 2022 · Hebrews 10:24–25
Spur Each Other On
“We need to be doing that for each other, because we all have those moments when we're the ones weeping over what was, or what we don't see is going to be. And we all need someone to say, "Hey, look what God has ahead for us." Give hope, love, peace, joy. Spur each other on to good deeds. "Hey, let's do this together. Let's serve these people. Let's worship God together." Spur each other on. Now, one of the ways we spur each other — I know what it says there: "Do not be in the habit of giving up meeting together," right? "Do not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing." You guys got to meet together. It's Paul saying, if you want to be community, if you want to be formed by community, you need to meet together. There's no two ways about it. You have to gather with other Christians. I think that's really important. … A lot of people got used to sleeping in. A lot of people got used to the pajamas, and bringing pajamas to church. And I get some are still worried about the health implications, and those are things that we got to work through together. I would say I don't think fear can always be our chief driver. There's going to be a time where we have to go, "Oh" — because it's always going to be possible that you'll get a sickness from someone if you gather. And it's always going to be there. Now, during COVID it was a different situation. We didn't know what we're dealing with, and it was dangerous stuff, and people were dying. So there was reasons why the government shut things down. But we have to realize, at some point we're going to gather.”
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February 20, 2022 · Acts 1:13–14
Pray Together
“The third thing I want to say is: make sure that you're praying for people when it comes along in real life, whether they're believing or unbelieving people. They're going to be thankful. Someone says to you something — "Hey, I got this problem" — don't just say, "Oh, I'll pray for you." Do it right then and there. Place their hand on them, and just pray quickly over them. I would say this is true with people who don't follow Jesus — people who aren't Christian, people who maybe are even atheist. "Hey, would you mind if I pray for you?" Then see how they respond. Usually they'll say yes. And then just quickly pray about that thing with them. And at the very least, they're going to be thankful that you did something you thought worked — even if they don't — they're not convinced of it. But I'm going to tell you, when you pray with them, that's better than any kind of trying to control and convince, argue with them — that you can — towards Jesus.”
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February 13, 2022 · Romans 12:15
Laugh and Cry Together
“I've actually been thinking maybe we need to do a series on emotional healthy spirituality, or maybe we need to do a series on loving Lord or God with all our heart, soul, mind, and body — and strength. Because this is key to what it means to be a follower of Jesus: learning to celebrate the victories in people's lives around us; learning to be able to mourn with those who are hurting bad; and to be able to do so genuinely, out of a place the Holy Spirit moves us and helps us feel, that we can have sympathy with those who are suffering, and we can have empathy and excitement for those who are rejoicing, even when we don't have that exact same thing that they have. Can you celebrate the fact that your friends can buy a new car? We mourn with your friends who have hit an economic downturn. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. This is what it means to be a community: to shape each other. Because when you're rejoicing and I rejoice with you, I'm being formed. When you're mourning and I'm mourning with you, I'm being formed. And when I'm mourning and you mourn alongside me, you're becoming more like Jesus, because you're doing what Jesus would be doing. And I'm becoming more like Jesus because of what you're doing. We form and shape each other in the community. So what do you do? We're talking about mourning. What do you do?”
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February 6, 2022 · Proverbs 27:17
Iron Sharpening Iron
“Some of them are Instagram models, that people are following, and they got all these pictures, and they influence things. Some of them are on cliff-tops, trying to take the perfect selfie, and actually literally fall off the cliff-top and die. "I happen to be famous influencer." You don't want to be influenced that way, do we? You don't want to fall off the cliff. And that's what we have to be careful of. Who are these influencers? And I also have to wonder: who is influencing the influencers? Who's influencing the — become influencers? Are they good forces or bad? With this culture that we've created, where people are thirsty for celebrity, and try to be the most popular, get the most likes? What's influencing them to be like that? And is that influencing us? We can't help but be influenced by our fellow humans. This is who we are. But wisdom calls us to look into who is influencing, and how they're influencing. We need to keep our eyes open. Is it the gangster rappers, with their money, sex, drugs, that are influencing us? Or is it the wise neighbour who's trying to show you how to best grow vegetables in your garden? Is it Satan, as he crafts and moulds the culture towards evil desires? Or is it the Holy Spirit, as he speaks to you through the Bible and through good Jesus-follower friends? If we're going to apply this in our lives — this idea — there's three things I want to focus on. The first thing I'm going to ask you is: take stock of who is influencing you. Who is influencing you? Just take a moment — maybe close your eyes. Note the different voices that you allow into your head, or come into your head, during a week. We'll start with media.”
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January 30, 2022 · 1 Corinthians 4:15
In Formation: Spiritual Parenting
“What he's trying to get at there is that God the Father is a Father overall. Now, I have a beloved father, my dad, who has been amazingly raising me in the faith, and also raised me as a human. And I recognize him, and I call him father. But there's one who is truly the Father. And if we're talking about a spiritual sense, we'll be really careful, because God is our Father, and we all are under him. However, the Father, in some sense — he could say has had many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And so the spiritual Father of all, Father God, the Father of Jesus Christ himself, has created a way of being in which he wants us to be a spiritual family. And some come along and they take a role in your life as a spiritual parent. They help you learn the ropes of faith. And often, I would say, sometimes you have a different person that comes up at different times in your life, and they play a certain role, to help teach you a certain aspect, or maybe in a certain crisis in life they come along and they walk with you, and they're spiritual parenting you in those moments. Now, most often these are your biological fathers. Especially when you're early on, and if you're growing up in the faith. I was blessed to have a mom, a dad who taught me the ropes of the Christian faith. They're the reason that I'd be a pastor, because they poured into me and loved me. And they still do.”
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January 23, 2022 · 1 Timothy 5:1–2
Creating a Christ Culture
“It started to come out about how employees were being treated on the set. And the stories at first were a couple, and then a few more people confirmed that it kind of became an avalanche. And one of the people — were talking, but they were saying — basically, that there was this, like, funny, kind, generous, fun person who was on the screen, but there was a mean and abusive person, and an abusive culture, in the real life for the employees. Now, at first a lot of people said, "Oh, this is a little jealousy and bitterness," and they kind of dismissed it. But more and more started to come out. And eventually even celebrities started speaking up about this, and how they had been treated, and how they had sensed this entire thing. … It was the fact that the whole foundation of the show and the persona was under this facade of "Be kind." But before we pass judgment, I would like to wonder how many times could this be said about the Christian church? We're built on a motto of "Love your neighbour as yourself." So often in history — or even presently — are we doing the exact opposite? Are we mean and belligerent? This is a very difficult reality that we face in the church: that we have a reputation for being unkind. And what we need to recognize is that Christ came to build a kingdom, and within that kingdom it was supposed to be a culture.”
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January 16, 2022 · Hebrews 2:11
The Father's Family
“Caring for your family, physical family, is part of what it means to follow Jesus. But more importantly than all this is the fact that God is a family. God is a family. As a Christian, I've seen throughout scripture, time and time again — we talk about the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit; those baptizing names. We see the Father is the one sending the Son; the Son comes, and he gives the Holy Spirit. There's this connection between those three persons. Then Christians recognize that in scripture the Father is called God, the Son is called God, and the Spirit is called God, and so somehow God himself is three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. And this is a family. Now, it's not three different gods. One God — the essence, we'll call it, the Godhead. The Godhead is a family of three persons loving each other. God doesn't need anyone in order to be loving. He is love itself, within himself. It's a relationship. God is a relationship. This is a really important concept, because when you recognize that, you can understand why it's so amazing that we get to be part of the family of God: because God is family. He's relational. God has love as part of his mysterious, Trinitarian being. And we can't miss that, because the very nature of God is family. Now, let's be true about family.”
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January 9, 2022 · Romans 8:1
Forgiveness
“This is the reality: that this is part of my identity. I am forgiven. I am forgiven. Oh, beautiful words. This is what we need to live into. Because I believe that faith is the means of forgiveness. As we believe in our forgiveness, we receive the subjective experience of that forgiveness. … We're saved through faith alone. We're forgiven through faith alone. It's just believing in Christ, and then we are forgiven. But we have to remember that we are also human beings who need to live in that forgiveness. … And that's what we need to learn to access: is not only know we're forgiven, kind of intellectually, but know that we're forgiven experientially. Live in the forgiveness. I think about the fact that Jesus loved forgiving people. The man who was lowered through the roof — he said, "You were forgiven." The man who was on the cross beside him — he said, "Today you'll be with me — and — paradise." Jesus loved exercising forgiveness. … He does it through Jesus — as — the reason that he came. If we are able to put our faith in Christ, we receive that forgiveness. I am not condemned. I'm not condemned. What a beautiful picture, right?”
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January 2, 2022 · Hebrews 10:25
Created for Community
“You are meant to be together in community. If you are not, I do believe that you are not listening to Jesus' plan for you. It is very clear that he wants us worshipping together. We are meant to worship him and to enjoy him forever, and to do so in community. Why? Because this is a relationship. We are meant to be in a relationship. And the reality is, we are meant to be in a relationship with the God who is relational. You think about who God is. God himself is not alone. God is three in one: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we are meant to be in a relationship with God.”
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October 31, 2021 · Daniel 6:10
Shut Their Mouths
“You take the courage to serve your God. You remain faithful to him. And then he remains faithful to you. We need to stay faithful to God, even in the hard times and the difficult times, and the questionable times, when we're bewildered, when we're upset. We need to say this: there are times when God allows the church to be persecuted. And I expect it's going to happen. If it's not in our generation, then in the generation of our children, or the one after that — it's going to happen. And it already happens in little places. We all experience the derision, the laughter, for being Christians. And there's that looking down at you that happens. But we haven't had the type of persecution that we're talking about, where you'll be persecuted for your faith like Daniel ends up being here. What might happen? And the point is, we need to be prepared. Not only might it happen — the Bible tells us it's going to happen. There's going to be a generation of Christians that end up facing a very evil situation. And it even says that eventually much of the church will be deceived. So we need to be the faithful that look past us and trust in God, so when that time comes up, we're prepared. We prepare ourselves. We prepare our children. Are you really ready to step up when that day comes? Because guess what? I want to put this out there: the faithful to God are rewarded, whether it's in this life or the next. But it often is — you're rewarded in this life. Sometimes it's interesting how, when you actually are faithful, when you stand up for your faith, or you take that thing that you didn't want to do, the reward that the Lord gives you in this life and time.”
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October 10, 2021 · Habakkuk 3:17–18
Even Then Refrain
“We don't need to fear when something negative appears. God is near. And that's what I think he's preparing us for. I hope this is what we learn out of this time: "Okay, I'm going to trust him. God, you'll get me through this, whatever's happening." And then that leads us to the second thing. I don't know if I can get to this stage unless I do the first one. That's why I've been talking about learning to trust. I think it's so important. Because once you're able to trust, then you can thank him in all circumstances. Even then. Even in the midst of famine, even when the crops stop, even when the fields don't yield, even when your grapes are withered, when you don't have any cereal to put in your bowl in the morning — when all this is gone, you can still be thankful to God. You know why? Our thankfulness to God is based on his goodness, not our circumstances. Does that make sense? "I'm thankful to you, God, because you are good. No matter what, I know that's who you are. My circumstances are not a demonstration of whether you're good or not. You're good no matter what." And if I can thank you in that — and I've got to say, there's been times I've been very worried, or terrified, or I was upset with God. I'm like, "God, why can't we meet in person? Why is this happening? God, I'm worried who's going to come back to church." If I just stopped for a moment, and instead of doing that, I stopped, and: "God, thank you for —" I went through that. It changes everything for me. "Thank you for my family." Oh my goodness, how blessed am I. "Thank you for my church family." How do I make sure that, in the midst of all of this, I go, "Okay, God, you're giving me my child. You've given me — you've showed up in the darkest times. I've seen it before. God, I thank you.”
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October 3, 2021 · Isaiah 26:19
Your Dead Will Live
“There's hope for resurrection. There's hope for life. There's hope for goodness. And there's hope for the church. That's the thing I'm really excited about. It's like, yes, there's been bad things — on — the name of Jesus. Yes, there's been dark times. But the Lord will overcome all of this with us. And it begins — celebrating him — what he's been doing. And I'm just so thankful for the fact that God is going to help walk us through this. God is building up his city. … It seemed like Jerusalem was done. God is building up his people. Right? That's why we're here. He's building us up. And — what — I feel like we took a hit. … Excited about what he's doing.”
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September 19, 2021 · 1 Kings 19:3–5
Prays of Elijah
“Elijah asked God to take his life away after he had this amazing miracle of fire falling from heaven. You probably had moments in your life that were kind of like amazing times, when God came through. There was a healing. Maybe there was a movement. Maybe he gave you some type of new vision or mission. Maybe he did something in your family's life. Maybe he just rescued you from darkness. And then later on, darkness falls again. I just want to say it's okay to feel overwhelmed sometimes. It's okay to not be okay. But we need to take it to God, because it can't be the end of the story. And that's — what — the second thing I want to point out. So the first prayer was — is — "I want to die" — for it. It's like, bring your laments to God. — I — actually bring, like, the highest-level stuff, the scary stuff, the stuff that you don't want to admit to anyone. When you have doubts — "Maybe, God — what am I supposed to do? What's going on?" — when those things are coming in your mind, bring it to God.”
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September 12, 2021 · Jonah 2:8–10
A Whale of a Prayer
“They are the capital of the kingdom of the Assyrians. For a long time, actually, they thought that the city of Nineveh didn't even exist. … But they discovered it actually exists. It's in Iraq, in all places. And the city of Nineveh is a city that is the capital of a barbarous empire. We're talking, like — the Romans are really bad at the crucifixion stuff. The Assyrians are probably the — cruellest — of all the empires. … They were — it was an evil empire. And so when he hears this, that God wants him to go preach to this empire, he's like, "Nah — I want to preach to them, but I want to preach fire and brimstone. God's going to destroy you." — I guess a little bit. — He's going to — God saying, like, "Tell them I'll destroy them if they don't pay attention." He's like, "Yeah, but you're going to tell them, like, repent. And then you're going to have mercy on them. I don't like that. They're evil. And you don't know what you're doing, God. They deserve destruction." And God says, "No, I want — to go preach to them and tell them to repent."”
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May 30, 2021 · Acts 4:23–28
Power Prayer
“I actually believe that power comes from faith, and this is the thing that last year was really put on my heart. It was faith. It's interesting how God puts different words — I've been asking for words for each year, but last year was faith. This year's is prayer. And I believe that prayer in faith is important. Deeds in faith are important. When they come from a place of faith, so much more happens. Honestly, in the last two years my faith has grown a lot, and I've been praying more in faith, and I've been seeing things more and more come to be accomplished, because I've been prompted by faith. Something will come to mind, or I just feel an impression on my heart, and then I start to trust: okay, is that for me? I think I'm going to go on this. I think God is leading me in this direction. And when you think God is leading you — when you have faith that God is leading you in this direction — it's amazing what you can do. When you're acting out of faith, there's a power. That's what these people are doing: "Okay, we have faith that you can overcome these authorities that want to hurt us." And notice: faith and goodness are fruits of the Spirit. Paul is asking for fruition of these deeds done in faith, and he's asking for fruition for every desire of goodness. Isn't that interesting? The fruit of the Spirit — would the fruit of the Spirit bring to fruition? That's what I truly believe. I believe that joy comes from faith. If you're feeling despair, we need more faith. That's what we need to ask God for. "Increase my faith, Lord." We need to look for the promises of Scripture. We need to remember that God is good and he loves us, and trust that love — because I think love comes from faith. I can love my enemy when I have faith that God is with me. Peace comes from faith.”
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May 23, 2021 · Acts 2:1–12
Praying in Tongues
“We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.* Now, it does say here "wordless groans." Sometimes you don't know what you're going to say. It's like, "Ah" — and then God hears your heart. I also believe that tongues — when you speak out in a language you don't understand, or in syllables you don't understand, and you're just letting it go, glossolalia, or tongues like this (people often call it a prayer language) — the Spirit is speaking to God your heart that you don't know. And that's why it's so useful for people who are able to receive it, because they can give their heart things that they don't even know are in there, and just offer it up to God, and speak it out, and it edifies themselves. It actually is a blessing. That's why practising praying in tongues can be such a powerful thing for someone, because it allows their spirit to speak to God things that they can't even intellectually wrestle with or understand. It's letting that stuff out to God — their heart's desire and cry. So again, there's a debate. What is tongues? Is it a real human language, spoken, miraculous? Is it a private prayer language? Yes.”
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May 16, 2021 · Matthew 6:10
Cosmic Prayer
“Humans themselves are infected by this great disease called evil now. And so the whole earth is teeming with this ugly infestation. And this is what's happened to earth. And yet the good news, my friend, is that the kingdom of God is in your midst. What Jesus said is, when he came, he began the kingdom — "your kingdom come." He began the kingdom. The kingdom is still coming. It's not here yet. It's not completed. But it is building. It is actually in our midst. It's within us. Jesus basically began a little outpost of the heavenly rebellion against the prince of this world, Satan. And I believe each church is a little garrison of God on earth. You are part of a spiritual battle. You are in the middle. And you are helping, and you are working against the forces of evil. You're part of the spiritual battle, helping the Lord bring his kingdom on earth. Why he includes us in it, I'm not exactly sure. But what I do know is that when Jesus left, he said he had to leave so the Holy Spirit could come. And now the Holy Spirit dwells within you, and the kingdom is within. It's in our midst. Christ was the kingdom of God in our midst, and then when he left, he sent the Holy Spirit into us, and now Christ lives in us. And now the kingdom of God is at work. We are doing the work of the kingdom wherever we go. We're trying to fight.”
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May 2, 2021 · Philippians 1:3–6
Good News Prayer
“I pray that I will fall more deeply in love with God. And this isn't about doing things to gain the love of God. He's not praying, "Oh, I hope you are able to do enough so that you prove that you love God," or "that you'll do enough good things so that God will love you." No. It's actually about — he's praying that they will take the time and space to experience the love of God. It's not like, "Oh, I'm going to study and read the scripture more so I can learn facts about God's love, and then I know God's love." No. Obviously you spend time in the Word, but you don't spend time in the Word to just get facts about it. It's that you can experience — you can hear God's voice. You spend time in prayer because you can experience love. He wants us to create space, to open up space for God, so that we can experience, we can know that love. Experiencing the love of God is the most important thing that you can have in your life. Nothing more. We all know the basic human necessity is love. You can have all sorts of food and riches, and you can be in a house where everything's provided for you and given to you, and if that house has no love within it, those children, those parents, everyone is just damaged. Love is the most real thing in the universe, friends, because God is love. And he created us out of his love, and he died for you out of his love. The Father sent his Son because he loved you. The Son died on the cross because he loves you. The Spirit fills your heart because he loves you.”
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April 18, 2021 · Acts 7:59–60
The Martyr's Prayer
“I think it doesn't happen if you don't pray. That's why I'm talking about practising prayer, because prayer is actually actionable. It does things. It changes you. When you pray for someone who's attacking you — wow, that changes you. And then you give glory to God. Your life gives glory to God. It shows God to be amazing, because look what he's doing with this person who's able to take stones and not hate the people who are doing it. That's a power. Who's in the power position here? People who are enslaved to their hatred and anger and fear and just throwing stones, or a person who's unafraid, full of life and love? Wow. Prepare yourself to show God in a good light, to show Jesus in a good light, when they come for the fight. Be ready for it. Speak truth powerfully. It's hard sometimes — you just speak clear truth, but without hatred, without anger, genuinely. Call evil evil, but do it out of good. Call out people doing evil, but don't do evil yourself in return. You can't defeat evil with evil. It never works. Evil's overcome with good. Do so in a spirit of sadness. Do so in a spirit of desire for restoration for these people. People can sense a difference in your spirit. It'll go a long way to helping people be convinced of Christ. I want to point out: God was glorified by what happened with Stephen. In fact, Stephen's prayer was answered.”
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April 11, 2021 · Luke 18:1–8
Bug the Judge
“We have the Holy Spirit of God that lives within us. The widow came to a court of law. We're coming to the throne of grace. We're coming to a place where we're before a gracious God. The widow pleaded her poverty. She had nothing. She's like, "Please, give me justice." We plead from a perspective of God's plenty. This is all coming from F. B. Meyer, an excellent contrast that he's giving. The judge was unrighteous, but God — he is goodness itself. If we think about the judge, who could be bribed in those times: God can't be bribed or argued with. You can't force him into this. This isn't about being forced. The judge answered for fear of her just wearing him down. God answers for his own glory and his own good. This is the comparing contrast between God and the judge, and us and the widow. This is the reality that God is calling us to: not to be discouraged. Every time you think he's not listening, he is. You have a God who loves you. He is not an unjust judge. You've got to come in humility, like the taxman — "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner" — but recognize how much more will God do good than this judge, who's just going to, like, yeah, do it because there's persistence. This is the reality. Just keep going. God is a do-gooder. He is good in himself. Ask him to do good. "God, do good." And I've got to point out: pray in line with justice. This woman is praying in line with justice. This isn't a get-whatever-you-want-out-of-God type situation. This is about someone seeking justice and crying out to God. We know what God wants, and we know what God hates. He wants life. He hates disease. He wants you to have joy. He hates discord. Approach God with a humble expectation. This is the way we should be praying, the attitude. God actually wants to hear your thoughts and prayers.”
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February 7, 2021 · Romans 12:11–12
Faithful in Prayer
“What am I using to help me enjoy the things that God has helped me enjoy, my God, and what are things that have now become my idol? Because honestly, we're supposed to love God first, and things in the world can help me love God. I can love God better when I love my family. But it is possible for me to elevate even my family to a place where I'm idolatrous, and I'm not actually fulfilling what God's calling me to, because I've taken and put something else in front of him. I love God because he is so gracious and good, and part of that is he gave me family. This will help me love God more. It's possible to have things help you love God, but it's also possible for good things to be trying to take the place of God. If it's spiritual oppression, attack — how do I overcome this? Well, pray more. "Lord Jesus, help me pray more. Prepare me for prayer. Find different ways of praying." We need to be battle-ready. Be geared up, realizing that this is a higher-level thing that's happening across our globe, across our nation. Is there deception? Yes. This has always been happening, always will. There's always a scheme of trying to manipulate things. And we know in the end God will be victorious, but part of what he tells us is that the prayers of the faithful are part of him accomplishing his plans. Now, I don't know exactly why. People say, "Why do we pray?" Well, God commanded you to.”
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January 31, 2021 · Matthew 7:7–8
Will Not Give You a Stone
“It's very frustrating sometimes, but if I'm really honest, I look back and it's kind of funny, because I realize this is probably a living parable of myself and how I relate to God. I'm a lot like that dog. I think I know what I want, and I want to go catch the stick and run and have fun and get my energy out. … And so this is part of what I'm realizing: that I need to be better at remembering to trust him. That I depend on him. That I actually need him. And that he wants what's best for me, and he'll make sure, ultimately, that he will bring me through whatever I need to in life, and I'll come out on the other end of it with an eternity full of joy. That's the truth of who God is. I can trust him, and I should trust him, and I should follow his leading and enjoy what he's brought to me. This is the reality of prayer. When we're talking about being prepared for prayer, part of it is coming in with a proper attitude and a proper humility, yes. And we need to recognize that we need to spend the time to sit on our beds and in silence meditate and allow him to help us process things. But another thing we need to do is approach him with the confidence of a son or a daughter, with the expectation of goodness in who I am speaking to. And we see this.”
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January 24, 2021 · Psalm 4:4
Silence in His Holy Presence
“What I love about reflection is this idea that there's something there that kind of reflects. I'm reflecting God, I'm reflecting Christ. I'm also reflecting because some of my experience and my day and my thoughts are kind of bouncing off it and being reflected, and I'm going over them again. This is the reality. What the Psalmist is telling us is: open your heart to scrutiny. Don't let it commit mutiny. You and God have a unity. The Bible calls all Christians to be reflective people. We can't just run about our lives and whatever happens, happens. We're not allowed to fly by the seat of our pants or act rashly. Christians are called to meditate, to reflect, to commune with our own hearts, to search our thoughts and our emotions. Our emotions need to be checked. Run them through the Holy Spirit filter. Your thoughts need to be checked. Run them through the Holy Spirit filter. The habit of, when we go to bed, when we wake up, turning these thoughts to God — whether we're going to bed, whether we're waking up, whatever it is — it's going to help stop us from making poor decisions or hurting other people. It's actually going to help us get closer to God. And I love that it's when you're on your bed. Isn't that amazing? I used to teach people — sometimes, because you fall asleep, there is that danger. But what I love is the scripture actually says, hey, use that time in your bed.”
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January 17, 2021 · 2 Chronicles 7:14
Humble Yourself and Pray
“Some of — you — things he's gonna — if you pray this — let's pray, "God, show me how you see me" — so, these things he's gonna show you are gonna be negative. I'm gonna tell you — you're gonna see your failures. You're gonna see your character flaws. He's gonna lay it all out there. It's not easy, okay? But be humble. There's a purpose to this. It's to help you get a realistic view of who you are. And what's more, he says, in — responses — you see these things come to you: confess your sins. Confessing sins isn't about, "Oh, I'm so scum." It's actually to remind you of the amazing grace of God. "O Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." That's the Jesus Prayer. May that — part of our regular life. Why? Not to make yourself — but because you know you need the mercy of God. This is what we need. The grace of God is there. It's free. It's freeing. It's uplifting.”
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November 22, 2020 · Deuteronomy 11:18–21
Vehicle of Blessing
“They became a Christian, and they went and got murdered. They died for them." Well, they're better off there. But what I mean in general is, if your friend picks up the Bible, starts reading it, and starts really understanding it, and meets Jesus in it, their life is going to be better for it. Now, you don't come to Christ so you have a better life, and you don't even come to Christ so you have an afterlife. You come to Christ because he is the truth. You come to Christ because he loves you; he made you; he died for you. But when you do that, your life now is blessed, and your life will be forevermore, into eternity, blessed. This is the truth of the Scriptures. And so we have this — sort of — the — spirit that's active on a level that you don't even know. So this is why we need to take in the Scriptures and hold on to them, because things are swirling out around us. You don't see what's happening. There is a higher plane of spiritual cursing and spiritual blessing, and we are meant to address it through the lessons in his Scriptures. We need to recognize, friends, that there's more to life than what you see on CNN and the news. There's more to life than what you hear on the radio. There's more to life than what you see at your front door. Life is going to be an infinite adventure. God made you and I to live forever, and that's what he's going to give to us. And so this reality, as we dig into the Scriptures now, is actually having infinite implications.”
“Bread and wine — let us be fed by the divine Word of God in real time.”
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November 8, 2020 · 2 Peter 1:20–21
More Than Human
“He had this, his heart was moved by the Spirit. He started talking about the suffering servant. And in Israel, like the Jewish people after Jesus, many of them were convinced by this passage to become Christians. And in fact, it becomes to this day — I saw a video on YouTube where this passage was being read to some Jewish people in Israel. They're like, "What is this? I haven't heard this before." And they were asking, "Who does it sound like?" They're like, "Kind of sounds like Jesus." These were not Christians. But when you hear it, it just sounds like Jesus, doesn't it? This is the power of — God wrote things ahead of time, and they are powerful. The New Testament actually quotes these passages: eight of the twelve verses are referred to directly. This is important, because the New Testament writers saw this about Jesus. So what do we do with this truth, that there's this divine author behind the human authors of the Bible? Well, I want to point out three things. The first one is, every time you crack the book, you come face to face with God. You're not just reading the writings of Samuel — the story of Samuel. You're hearing about how God uses the story and the words of Samuel to bless his people, and to bless us. Reading the Bible is not a secular act. It's not like reading any other book. This is a divine encounter. You meet God every time you open this book. So how are you treating your Bible? Is it the key to your survival or reliability?”
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November 1, 2020 · Ephesians 2:19–20
The Foundation
“It might be a few intellectual hurdles they need to overcome that you can help them with. But the reality is, I believe that the way that I've seen most people change their hearts about the Bible is they start reading it. It is self-authenticating. When you read the Scriptures, you start to sense God's presence in them. You start to be blessed by them, and you start to know the truth of them. And so this is a goal for me: is to help our friends start to pick up this. "Why don't you read John? Let's read it together. Let's talk about it." No pressures. And hopefully, as they start to open it, then the Holy Spirit can start to use it, and it says to them, "This is true. So let's make sure that we understand because why? Our job isn't to convert people to the Bible. Our hope is to convert them to Jesus — to know and love Jesus. And as they start to fall in love with Jesus, the Scriptures start to become very clearly the Word of God to the people, right? Just think about it. How do people come to know Jesus? They start reading the Scriptures, perhaps, or they're told about Jesus. But they come to know Jesus, and then slowly but surely the authenticity of the Scriptures is revealed to them. And that's really important for us to realize. And that's really important for us to realize, my job isn't to convince an atheist about the truth of the scriptures. I do have a job, hopefully, to help them answer any of the questions they're having, but the reality is pointing to Jesus, He is the word of God. But the reality is, pointed to Jesus.”
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June 7, 2020 · Acts 1:6–8
Count the Pentecost
“The Holy Spirit has guided the church over centuries. The Holy Spirit confronts the darkness. And yes, many individuals in the church have grieved the Spirit greatly with things like racism — and even, actually, churches together have grieved the Spirit with things like racism. But also, the Holy Spirit empowering the church is what overcame many racist rules and laws and cultural traditions. And we can allow the Holy Spirit to continue to purge that evil out of our society now. Right? The black church gave rise to Pentecostals, which has reawakened the Holy Spirit. The black church showed us there's a unity that exists in God. The black church listened to the Holy Spirit, and gave us music that we worship with. It gave us prophetic moments and movements, like the Civil Rights Movement, to make the world a better place. We have the chance to really live differently, because we have the Spirit of God within us, and he will direct us. So maybe when you're facing jail for doing good, you can have joy, like Paul, with the Spirit. Or you're facing hatred from a group of people, and you can face them with love, like Martin Luther King Jr. Or maybe you're facing fighting in a moment, and you can have peace — like we're seeing happen in little beautiful moments, as the story is unfolding in front of us. … Especially as a church, we do not need to be afraid. We have the Holy Spirit. Let the Spirit show you how you can love in this time.”
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May 31, 2020 · Galatians 2:20
Union with Christ
“As we live out of this, as we have God's perspective, as the qualities of the divine being are lived out through us, as we know them with our hearts and not just with our minds — let them become powerful parts of our experience of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. There's so many aspects to the union we can talk about. Augustus Strong has another take on it. He talks about an organic union — this idea that we are — to gather — part of the body of Christ, and in Christ together. There's a vital union. This is the idea that the life of Christ is pumping through us. There's that spiritual union again — the idea that the Holy Spirit himself is in us, and that's what connects us to Christ. That's how Christ lives in us: through the Holy Spirit. It's an indissoluble union. This will never be destroyed. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Christ is within you, and living in power through you. It's an inscrutable union, though. This means that we can never understand the union. This is deeper than we can ever understand, because this surpasses our knowledge. This is God himself living in and through us.”
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May 24, 2020 · Romans 8:37–39
Resurrection Intercession
“Resurrection means Jesus' love conquers all. We are conquerors. This will not defeat us. Reminds me of my team — the Toronto Raptors — last year. Oh — what an amazing victory. They won despite all odds. This is the thing that we need to think of. Nothing on this planet will stop us from winning. Jesus wins in the end. We have the hope of victory — because we've seen death defeated. All obstacles — neither life nor death. COVID can do its worst. It's not going to stop Jesus' love. The angels and demons — evil beings bent for your destruction. They're not going to separate you from Jesus' love. … Nor can any imagined post-apocalyptic future. The real future is the one of bliss with Jesus. It's a world renewed with God. … No powers. Government powers can't defeat you. Socially powerful people can't separate you from Jesus. Laws — and lack of laws — both. They cannot separate you from Jesus.”
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May 17, 2020 · Romans 8:5–8
Resurrection Righteousness
“Those living according to the flesh — with their mind on the flesh. And those who are living according to the Spirit — with their mind on the Spirit. Now — the biblical word flesh doesn't just mean body. It's more of a powerful spiritual thing that's going on in the flesh. It's the sinful nature. The body was made good. But the flesh is when I allow the body to begin to dictate all my actions. The flesh is the body gone wrong — lust — gluttony. We know when these things happen. If I eat all the cheesecake — it's not good. If you act on every lustful desire — it's going to destroy your heart and the hearts of others. The flesh is when the fall of Adam is let loose in our bodies. Flesh equals death — Spirit equals life and peace. Flesh is hostile to God — lacking submission — unable to please God. I don't know about you — but this is what frustrates me a lot of the time. … There's this battle in me between the flesh and the Spirit. And I am told to have my mind set — to have an attitude towards life. To place my heart and my mind and my soul towards life.”
“Let us live the resurrection life tonight.”
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May 10, 2020 · Romans 6:4
Resurrection Rebirth
“It's a turning our back on the way that God would have us live. And it's everywhere, my friends, and it's destroying us. And yet we hear Paul tell us this is buried. It's buried. Wow. Think about that. All of that is placed into the water of baptism. It's buried. This is no longer the reality we're living in. Yes, it's here, but it doesn't have the last word. Life rules now, not death. Death will not have victory. Death has already been defeated. It's buried. I've died to death. I've died to anxiety. I've died to pain. I've died to sin. This is the reality of my life as a Christian. It's not the controlling narrative for me anymore. Jesus has defeated death, and it gives me hope. Notice what it says here: "in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead — to — the glory of the Father." This is the resurrection — light — that we've been speaking of for the past few weeks. That this is the ground of all our hope. This is the ground of the power in which I can live my life in light of the light, rather than darkness. I can live my life as new life instead of old death. I can live my life in righteousness and power and goodness, instead of sin and brokenness and hurt and pain. I can live a new life because Jesus raised from the grave. It's the thing that allows Christians to be different than anything else you're hearing out there.”
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May 3, 2020 · Romans 1:1–6
Resurrection Obedience
“He has received this grace, and he's received this title of apostle. So he can ask all the Gentiles to what? To obedience. The good news is the obedient to Jesus. And why does that come? Where does that come from? It comes from faith. This obedience comes from faith, for his name's sake. I obey because I believe. Now, he calls all these Gentiles from all the world. This is a brand new thing that God is doing on the earth. Before, his people were a very specific ethnic group called the Jewish people. And by the way, it was down to two and a half tribes left of the twelve tribes. There was just three little tribes left. And these people who still live in Judea — they were the Jewish people. And they were conquered by multiple empires, and now they're being ruled by the Romans. And Jesus has expanded this kingdom not just from the Jewish people, but to all people. They now have a chance for the good news. They can be part of the family of God. This is great news. This is beautiful news. And this is what we hear. Having faith in Jesus resurrected — for — the dead means that I can believe he truly is King. He overcame death. He is the King of life. And this belief, this faith, needs to result in obedience to the King. If you really believe in the resurrection, you will obey — King. By faith in the resurrection, Jesus calls me to kneel at his feet, to obey his words. I love my Lord.”
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April 26, 2020 · Acts 4:2
Resurrection Rejection
“This would be a number of mass hallucinations. So let me just answer some of this rejection — this idea of the physical resurrection of Christ being outlandish and a fairy tale. "Why would you ever believe in such a silly thing?" Well, Lee Strobel — if you ever have a chance to, I recommend the book called The Case for Christ. And Lee Strobel was an atheist, a journalist who was an investigative reporter, who specialized in this type of thing. His wife became a Christian, and he himself got really upset about this. He was one of those guys who responded with the furious to this idea. He wasn't curious; he was furious. And so he decided he was going to prove his wife wrong, and he would investigate this like he would any other kind of claim that he would report in the newspapers. And so he went about it, and the more he researched it, slowly this atheist turns into a theist, and eventually turns into a Christian believer in the resurrection of Jesus. It's a great story. There's a movie, actually, called The Case of Christ, so you can check that out as well. But let me give you some of the things that he points to. One of the points to respond to this idea is that there are very early accounts of the Christian faith in this. So a lot of times what you hear is the idea of resurrection kind of grew over time, and it was kind of something that grew in the Christian church, and eventually it's something accepted.”
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April 19, 2020 · Acts 23:6–11
Rest in Resurrection
“The hope for a cure is a powerful thing. It can keep us going. "Okay, let's keep going, and hopefully we'll have a vaccine." It can help give us some respite in the midst of our anxiety about an unknown virus. And this is why I believe, as a Christian, the doctrine of the resurrection is so important: that we live in light of the doctrine of the resurrection, because the doctrine of the resurrection gives us hope. The doctrine of resurrection is saying that Jesus Christ's life and death is the vaccine to death. It is the cure to our fear of death. This is the reality. If we hope in the resurrection of Christ, we can finally get some rest. Now, it isn't COVID-19 on its own — it's very scary. There's many viruses that we don't have much fear of. But why it's scary is because of the threat of death. This is the real fear that's set in the hearts of humanity. Death is the real fear. Death is the real enemy. Death is the thing to which we're always wondering, is there a cure? And the resurrection of Christ offers us this hope that there's a final cure. We might not see it all happen right here and now, but there is an eternal vaccine against death. And this is the living Christ living within us, when we put our faith in him and trust in him: that he lived righteously, he died on the cross, and he rose again to resurrection life, and he will come back and return, and all those who sleep in Christ will live eternally. This is a hope. And we need to live every second of our lives remembering this hope. This wasn't just a last-week hope.”
“So let us live our life as a life that truly experiences resurrection.”
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April 12, 2020 · John 11:24–26
Christus Victor
“You can just be sitting down and then you rise up. That's what it really just means. … But it just comes from the simple word of just rising up. And I love it, because you think of this idea of, like, Jesus is sitting in the grave and then he stands up. He stands up. This is resurrection. Now the idea of resurrection was a very interesting idea. It was a huge argument in the day of Jesus. We know this because the Pharisees were very focused on the idea of resurrection. They believed in a literal resurrection. They took it from the book of Daniel, and also there's hints of it in Job. There's all kinds of hints of it throughout the prophets. But on the other hand, the Sadducees argued that there wasn't a resurrection — that this was not part of the story, and that when you died, you died. And this was a debate going on in the Jewish culture at the time. Nowadays, you'll find a lot of the Jewish community would argue that there is no resurrection. But this is something that you see is a live theological debate in the time of Jesus, and you can see where Martha is. She's on the resurrection camp. You know where Jesus is? He doesn't only believe in resurrection. He claims he himself is the resurrection. Notice that he doesn't say, I do resurrections. I am resurrection.”
“Let us not fear death at all — and let us remember that we live in the power of resurrection.”
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April 5, 2020 · Ephesians 6:15
The Breastplate and the Sandals
“The end of the day, ask the Lord to show you where he was during — a — day, and then ask him to show you where it was that you could have acted differently — where you could have brought peace into a situation; where you could have protected your heart, and not allowed fear or shame or any of these other things to pierce through. And then allow God to show you — and then confess it. And when you confess it, you're polishing off your armour; you're cleaning up your armour. We need to put on the armour. Notice that we have something to do. We can do it. It says to be ready. Readiness and steadiness will help us get ahead of this. This is what God is calling us to. We can't fear. We need to be wise. We need to put on the proper protection for our actions. And if we do, we recognize we're going to stand. And if we fall, get up and stand again. Spiritual warfare is about being ready with the proper tools. We should expect attacks. Don't worry about the attacks. Expect them. There is an enemy seeking to devour. He hates humanity. He hates the church even more. He wants to do as much damage to us as he can. Our job is to be prepared, and withstand. We have the tools at our hands. Let's social distance ourselves from the devil. He's infected, but we're protected.”
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March 29, 2020 · Ephesians 6:10–12
The Armor Against the Virus
“I want to begin just by reminding everyone that we do see in Scripture a call to submit to our government, in Romans 13:1 and 2, Titus 3 and 1. So we need to make sure we put in place the precautions that they are asking us to, remembering that, unless they are calling us to defy God, that we are called to be subject to them as agents of God. And I want to kind of start with some of the precautions they are talking to us about, and take that into account for what we are doing in terms of this series. I wanted to begin a new series called The Armor of God. And I thought about what they are asking us to do, and it is very interesting, because we are starting to realize that they are calling us to take in a few precautions — a few things to do that will protect us against the virus. The first one is this new term for a lot of us: social distancing. The idea is to stay away as much as possible — for — other people. And it is hard for me, as a pastor, I got to say. I miss my church so much. It is what I live for. I go to church probably every Sunday — there are maybe a couple of Sundays in a year where I will miss. Even on vacation, I try to schedule my vacations in between. And so this is a really difficult time.”
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March 22, 2020 · Acts 4:8–12
Saviour
“This helps to understand, when we say that Jesus saves people — this is what we're saying. He's rescuing them from dire circumstances. When we say Jesus saved us, it's much more than just being rescued on a snowmobile. Jesus saved us spiritually. He saved us eternally. That's not less real. It's more real. So how does Jesus save us? There's a few ways I want to think this through. First of all, he saves us from our sins. He saves us from ourselves. He saves us from our brokenness. He saves us from the ways in which we hurt ourselves and others. He saves us from the guilt and the weight of that — the fact that we are responsible for our own actions. He wipes us clean. He saves us. He forgives us. We are no longer held to account for that. Secondly, he saves us from the evil one. There is an evil force present in the earth that is trying to take out humanity — that wants to push us down, that wants to keep us oppressed. And Jesus has saved us from that force. He saves us from others. If there's others who want to hurt us, or others who are just, in their own ignorance and blindness, living lives that can accidentally or purposely hurt us — Jesus is saving us from that. And he's saving us from circumstances. There's times in our lives when Jesus will step in. He will rescue us. There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Jesus came to earth. God became flesh. He grew up as a human.”
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March 15, 2020 · Hebrews 12:1–3
All Eyes on Jesus
“I said, "Why did it take two phases?" And what he said to me is that sometimes it takes time to heal. Sometimes he wants us to take the next step towards him. He wants us to take the next step of moving towards seeing Jesus. And this hit me personally. Not just on an intellectual level. The Scriptures are becoming alive to me, because I was listening to God's voice. I saw Jesus at that moment. Let's do that this week. Take some time, and let the Scriptures open up to you. Seek his face. Look towards him. Imagine if we did this regularly, where we actually just — actually took the time to let the words speak to us. And we took time and let the Holy Spirit speak to us. Truly fixing our eyes on Jesus — allowing him to have our attention. How many times a week do we spend our time mesmerizing, staring at a screen or a movie? How often do we let that be our vision? What would it look like if the church allowed Jesus to be their vision? Lord, give us eyes of faith to see. We all have the areas of spiritual blindness, and I believe God wants to heal us. He wants us to see more of Jesus. He wants us to fix our eyes on the prize, and see through the lies. We want to change. Let's let Jesus change us from the inside. Fix your eyes on Jesus.”
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January 12, 2020 · Acts 28:30–31
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus
“The people in the civil rights movements — they had the same thing. They were being thrown in prison, and they were able to keep their eyes on the prize. Dr. Martin Luther King would tell us that we had to keep our eyes on Jesus. To keep our eyes on Jesus, because freedom is in Jesus. The Civil Rights Movement would not have happened without Jesus. Dr King and so many others were just steeped in the soil of Jesus. He's the one when they're walking across the bridge. … They weren't looking at that — they were looking at Jesus. And when they kept their eyes on Jesus — freedom. Eyes on the prize. Imagine how hard it must have been to just kind of take — these — brutality from a racist government. To not just lash back in violence. How hard it would be not to strike back at them in righteous anger. And yet if they did, freedom may never have come. But it was because they focused on Jesus that they were able to overcome. It was because their eyes — went — Jesus. They were able to see the entire course of history change. Just like Paul, they endured the hardships simply by looking at Jesus instead of their situation.”
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December 30, 2019 · Acts 13:1–3
Set Apart
“God's direction must be from Him. It has to be His call. We can't make our own call on our calling.”
“Whatever you do, take the time necessary to listen to Him. But then again, when He calls, act.”
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October 13, 2019 · 1 Corinthians 12:17–20
The Nature of Community
“You are part of the body! If you follow Jesus, you are de facto part of a community of Christians across this globe, if you like it or not. You can't escape it! It's like the mob — you can never leave. But in a good way. Now notice what Paul is trying to say here. The nature of community is that it is something we are part of whether we relish it or not. We are part of a community if we realize it or not. We are part of a community even if we fight against it. You are part of the body of Christ — a worldwide community. The question is whether you try to avoid it or not. Why do we try to avoid community? Here Paul is saying it's because we tell ourselves, "I don't belong." And why do we say we don't belong? We look around and we decide we aren't like everyone else. "I'm not a hand." "I'm not an ear." This is important, because we may know objectively it doesn't matter what ethnicity or economic demographic I am part of, but we will still self-select out of a community by saying, "I'm too different!" The Christian church can never be a place where someone feels too different to belong. They have the same Spirit. This means two things: 1) each person needs to get over themselves and realize how they do and must belong to any local church; 2) each local church has to get over itself and not be trying to find who is "a good fit" in this church.”
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September 23, 2018 · Acts 2:42–47
Formed Through Community
“Sure, it's a little scary, selling all your stuff. But there is a beautiful thing happening to these people. Jesus is pulling them together. And some of them have never even met before, and there's something happening. God's starting to pull them together, centred around Jesus. So how do you get formed by Jesus? It only happens in the community. It only happens with a group of believers coming together and starting to let their centre be Jesus. Iron sharpening iron. (Proverbs 27:17) Now listen to the things that happen here. They are formed, and there's three things it begins with: the apostles' teaching, fellowship, and the breaking of bread and prayer. It begins with the centring around the apostles' teaching — that the word of God is the centre of this community. They are always coming around, and they want to learn more. I want to know more about my God. I want to know more about my Jesus. If we don't have the word, then we don't grow in Jesus. And so we just need to keep learning. It's an important aspect of what it means to follow Jesus in your life — that we have this passion, or at least this daily or weekly habit, of coming to the Scriptures and letting them form us. Sometimes you're more excited about it. Sometimes I open the word and it's kind of like — just. And then I open it, and something hits me. But the idea here is this: people are shaped by the word of God. But they're not just shaped on their own. They're not lone wolves, staying on their own and trying to figure it out. This is a fellowshipping group. What is koinonia?”
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July 22, 2018 · Acts 13:1–3
Set Apart
“They had no clue what was going to happen. They didn't know where they were going. They needed wisdom from someone who knew how to get them through that treacherous cave. They needed someone that they had to trust in to save their lives. They were completely beholden. And I think about my own life, and I think about what was happening there, and you know what, I'm going to be honest, I kind of felt like the waters are coming in. The waters are coming on my head. I'm going to be, Lord, what are you doing? Why is this happening? It looks bleak, dangers around the corner. You don't know what to do, you don't know what to say, you don't know where to go. And the time comes in life, we need direction, we need to hear from someone who knows. And so, as I've seen the kind of waters rising in my own life, and I love God, so I just call out to God. God, save me, show me — did you call me? Give me direction, give me some sense of where to go. … But we don't know what he's saying, or it's hard to hear his voice, his darkness, the caves. How do we discover God's direction in our lives? How do we know that we hear his voice? How am I supposed to follow him when the water's rising?”
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June 24, 2018 · Luke 17:11–19
Thankfulness and Gratitude
“The basic setting of the human heart is supposed to be set to thankfulness.”
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June 17, 2018 · Matthew 5:5–9
Peace and Meekness
“Meekness is not weakness, that you could be meek and peaceful and strong as a rock at the same time.”
“Seek meekness.”
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June 10, 2018 · Habakkuk 2:3
Patience and Endurance
“Someday, we're going to be more excited than that. Do you believe that? Someday, we are going to be way more excited than that. And in the ten years he endured to get to that — endurance that we've had to show through all the ups and downs of our lives — we are going to celebrate like that, together. I'm excited. Oh, happy day. That's what it's all about. … He defeated sin. He defeated pain. And one day he will return and set everything right again. … The wait for this Great Eight is just a little foretaste of how we're going to sing when the angels bring in that great King, Jesus. But in the meantime, let us wait. We hope for what we do not have. We wait for it patiently.”
“But in the meantime, let us wait.”
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June 3, 2018 · Luke 6:35
Love and Kindness
“Kindness is not weakness. Kindness is actually a profound strength.”
“Kindness is a muscle. Flex it.”
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May 27, 2018 · Ephesians 4:13–15
Maturity and Self-Control
“We still need to remember that we live under God's grace. We still need to learn to live a life transformed by the Holy Spirit. We still need to give whole areas of our lives over to control of the Holy Spirit. … Outrageous. God wants us to become mature. He wants us to grow up. He wants us to have self-control — to train ourselves to see the difference between good and evil. Jesus wants us to focus on allowing God to grow us wiser over time, as we begin to reflect Christ in our lives. As Christians, we want our lives to be like Jesus. And guess what? Jesus matured quite quickly. Here's a verse that describes what's happening with him at the age of twelve: "And Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man." (Luke 2:52 NIV 1984) If you remember this verse in Luke, it's actually in the context of him going to the temple of God at the age of twelve, and, like, schooling the pastors. … So if we are to reflect perfection, may we become like that twelve-year-old boy? … Jesus wants us to be like him. He wants us to become mature in the gospel. My prayer is that we grow up — that we grow up in God. We truly reflect the perfection of Jesus. We need to become mature in the gospel — to grow and mature in the stature of the one whose name that we claim.”
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May 13, 2018 · Matthew 5:33–37
Honesty and Faithfulness
“As a culture, we value honesty, but we practice duplicity.”
“Let us be people who are truthful.”
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May 6, 2018 · John 21:15–17
Grace and Forgiveness
“It helps you become a person who looks like Jesus. And part of doing the difficult thing of forgiving is to realize that many times the other person is just unable to even ask for forgiveness. They need it more than you do. The second thing that Jesus is doing here is that he's helping Peter learn to forgive himself. Peter needs to forgive himself. Kanye needed to forgive himself. Kanye paid for his mom's plastic surgery. You can imagine the question that was going through himself. What if I didn't pay? Was it my obsession with fashion and outward appearance that made her get the surgery? … Healing would only come through forgiveness. Forgiveness of the doctor; forgiveness of himself. Now, I know this is difficult. It's easy to say, forgive. It's easy to say, forgive yourself. Doing it is a different story. Can I suggest that you forgive yourself for not forgiving yourself, as a start? Be patient with yourself. Forgiveness is a personal journey, and yet it's something that God calls us to remember. If we say, no, no, I can't forgive myself — what we're saying is, God, whatever. I know better than you. You forgave me, but I'm not worthy of forgiveness. It's actually a supreme arrogance to not forgive yourself of what God has forgiven you of. And it's very difficult, and yet God calls us to accept my forgiveness. Peter — recognize. You're forgiven. And the third thing that happens is that Peter is restored to leadership in the community. This is why it's public.”
“It says in Scripture that if someone has something against us, before we come, let us make it right.”
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November 26, 2017 · Ephesians 6:10–12
Protecting the Church
“One thing I do know: that the way we live our lives can protect us. If we live lives that are in line with the way we're instructed in the Scriptures, there'll be some protection there. But even more importantly, the main protection we have is the righteousness of Christ. … That when all the attacks come about how you're not righteous, we realize, I am not condemned. I am in Christ Jesus, by his grace. I am freed, and that will not defeat me. … Oh, you're not good enough. You did this that time. God doesn't love you because of that. No. I stand strong, protected in the righteousness of Christ. Have your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. My peace shoes. Isn't it interesting? We talk about warfare — spiritual warfare and these type of things — and often what I think happens is we start to turn this into the idea of a violence. Well, if that's happening, let's get our armies together; let's go attack. … And that's how we will resist the attacks. And then we have the shield of faith. Ready to counter the arrows of the evil one. … No, no — trust. Maybe you're trying to go into something, and you feel like God called you into something, and then the arrows start hitting. It's easy to pull out. But do you have faith in what God wants of you? Are you ready to push through the fight, the onslaught, to stand firm through faith? I want to talk about the helmet of salvation.”
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November 19, 2017 · Ephesians 5:21
Church Family
“When there's marriages, there's going to be times we have to let go of our own priorities, and recognize the wisdom of the other partner, or the necessity that they have in this. Denying yourself is difficult. It can actually seem unnatural. But when we realize, in a context where each person is doing it, there's a real possibility for a great relationship. If I am submitting to you, and you're submitting to me — now, if God's really in that, there can be something beautiful. If the church is submitting to leadership, and leadership is submitting to the church, then there's something beautiful that can grow out of that. … We know it can go really wrong, and we need to keep our eyes open for that, because it's a perversion of submitting to God. But we have to ask ourselves, is there a part of my heart that is hard against someone? Is there something that's stopping me from submitting to them in love? And why is that? Often our attitudes get built up, and we start to build these walls over a long time. It could be weeks, or months, or years, and we don't even realize the extent to which we block people off. … In our families, our work, our friendships, our church. Submission is a mission that is critical, yet difficult. And only the Lord can help show us where it is in our own lives.”
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November 12, 2017 · Ephesians 4:17–24
Living Church
“He's saying to you, I want you to have joy in your heart. I want you to understand that you can be a light that shines. We talk about the vision for the church, and God's vision. What he has a vision of is new people seeing Jesus because you are living in your new self. That is a church where everyone is living in this new way, and people are attracted to Jesus. I want to see that. It's a lifelong process, but it is worth the makeover time. So I pray that our church is kind of like a change room. We're in this process where some of us are taking off this sweater and others are putting on new things. And we're in this place. When we come together to recognize, hey, God is working on me. He's working with me. As long as I'm journeying with him and growing in this, he is going to look at me, and — he smiles. You can please him. He is happy with you, because you are living a life where you're allowing him to speak into this. God's vision is of a people who are growing in him, in this makeover of old self to new self. … They mocked him. Much like the persecuted church that we saw earlier, who, by the way, are living this life of change to the point where they're risking their lives.”
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October 29, 2017 · Ephesians 3:20–21
Church Beyond Imagination
“Look at all the ways that adversity can be overcome. If a tree had feelings, I imagine — oh, I'm alone on this rock. What am I going to do? I'm in the middle of a building. And yet, God can build his church. Where does God want to take you in your life? Where does he want to take our church? What is he imagining for us? What can you do? Whatever our circumstances are, don't be discouraged. God can do more than you can imagine. God can do greater things, because his love surpasses your knowledge. Our vision, I believe, will never be too big. … If it's God's, go for it. Even Paul, I don't think, could imagine quite what God was going to do. He knew that God would bring all things under Jesus. But did he imagine that this entire earth, this entire planet, would have people gathering to worship Jesus Christ, Sunday — today? He wanted to go to Spain. (Romans 15:24, 28) He had his dream. I don't think he ever got there. He imagined Spain be a missionary base for the word of Jesus. God can do more than we can imagine. And that's why I believe that our purpose is to connect to his presence, get to know his will and his love. When we're feeling discouragement, it's to pray that prayer: Lord, strengthen my heart. Give me the power.”
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October 22, 2017 · Ephesians 2:1–10
Built by God
“Maybe one of us gets the cubicle over here. He's building up this thing, and we're part of that. So the good works are not about me trying to get to God. It's about God getting to others, through me, and using me. And I am saved in grace. Everything is grace. Everything is gravy. Everything is gracey. This world is imbued with the grace of Christ if you open your hands to him. If you receive that gift that he's offering to us. And as we receive it, then we're able to look at the design that he's doing. And guess what? … He's given you a special gift. He's made you unique in certain areas, giving you gifts that he wants to be used in concert. … But as we are built up together as a church, we're able to use our gifts in that place. Some people are helping set up communion. Some people are serving in worship. Some people are greeting at the doors. Some people are in leadership. Some people are teaching.”
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October 15, 2017 · Ephesians 1:15–17
Praying for the Church
“That part of you is the unity of who you are, and your spirit before God. … And at the same time, I find very promising that this is not something that Paul is telling us to do — hey, open up your heart eyes. It's not that simple. … It's actually something that God bestows upon us through his Spirit. And this is a prayer. Lord, would you allow their hearts to open? Would you allow my eyes, in my heart, to open to you? Can I see you? This is a great Jesus-centred prayer. What he's asking is that we will be able to know who Jesus is better. If our eyes get open to this Spirit of wisdom and this Spirit, we're going to start seeing what we have. A great hope. The hope that he's called us to is this amazing hope that there is going to be everything that's broken brought to healing. All the hurt will become joy. This is a beautiful promise, a beautiful hope. The riches of our glorious inheritance is the idea: someday we will be walking on a new creation, and all the groaning has stopped, and there's rejoicing. This is a powerful God.”
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October 8, 2017 · Ephesians 1:9–11
A No-Walls God
“The mystery of God is one of the things I love most about God, and one of the things that frustrates me the most about God. It frustrates me because sometimes I'm like, God, why is this happening? Why have you allowed this? But then again, he's always doing the unexpected. You can't put him in a box. You never know when he's going to show up or how he's going to show up. And part of the mystery is that a lot of times it doesn't make sense to us. But we're hearing here: don't worry, don't fear, he has a plan. There's a plan. I don't know the plan. I don't understand the plan. But I have to learn to trust the plan. And that's a hard thing to do. But we know what the plan is about. We got the vision. … (Ephesians 1:10) God has a plan to bring unity to this universe under Jesus. The unity of the church, this bringing of unity — this is where the tearing down of the walls comes in. This is a no-walls God. He wants oneness. He wants to bring all of humanity, all of heaven, together under the love of Jesus, the grace of Jesus, the peace of Jesus, the hope of Jesus. I know, as we go through the book of Ephesians, we'll see this keep popping up.”
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September 24, 2017 · Matthew 11:18–19
Remaking Right and Left
“We're trying to figure out life as it comes our way. A church without walls says, come to the table, whoever you are. Come and love Jesus. Come be part of the family of Jesus. And I'm certain that in this congregation we have people of all sorts of different stripes — politically, philosophically, theologically. We're all trying to get a sense of our lives. We're all trying to know how we're supposed to work in society. We're all called to vote, as good citizens of our country. But what the gospel tells us is that does not define us. Jesus does. What defines me? I'm a follower of Jesus. … Wine or not wine. … A church without walls is a place where we sit down together. We treat each other like holistic human beings. We're bound together by love for Jesus. And so, to do this, I think we need to resist labels. Let's be careful. And I — excuse me — for throwing an epithet at someone in our mind. … What does it look like when we join the Jesus movement? Our wisdom is proved right by our deeds. By who we are. Not by our ideology. How do you actually live your life? How do you actually love people? A person who believes in Jesus is transformed. They're no longer defined by their policies, the thing might be right for the civic good. And every election time we're all going to have to get together and talk about these things. It's not that these things are unimportant. It's that Jesus is all-important. … We begin to love indiscriminately.”
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September 17, 2017 · Luke 5:27–32
Where You're At
“Levi, we learn later, is a man named Matthew, (Matthew 9:9) who actually gets to write an entire gospel about who Jesus is. Now, how does Levi respond to this call? The first thing he does is he does it immediately. He's like, I want Jesus. I know this. I need him. Doesn't mess around. He doesn't go, let me take these things with me. He says, I'm with you. Which I think is a really important thing for us to remember: that when we come to Jesus, we are to leave everything. If the job is building a wall between you and Jesus, leave it. If your things are building a wall between you and Jesus, leave it. And so he does this. I mean, he recognized what's happening, and he says, I want Jesus. And then I love what happens with Jesus, because he says, okay, what do I want to do now? I want to have a party. This is exciting. And Levi hasn't learned yet that you only invite your fellow Christian disciples to dinner. "Then Levi had a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others" — what's the word? "Others" is used here by Luke — "were eating with them." He doesn't just immediately cut out all those old friends. He's like, oh, I love Jesus, therefore I can't love you. It's the opposite. I love Jesus so much, you got to meet this guy. I'm going to have a big barbecue, and you're going to all come over. We're going to have the block party on the patio, and you're going to come, and you're going to get to meet Jesus face to face.”
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September 10, 2017 · Mark 2:1–12
Through the Roof
“I think our work, our job, is to help people experience Jesus. It's Jesus's job to do what he does with them. We bring them together, to experience the love of God. So I pray that we pray for each other, pray for our church, pray for our leaders, pray that we come with this vision and realize how do we be the church without walls for 2018 and beyond. And what I love about what we're doing today, in this circle, is that we're all gathered around the centre. Because this is one thing I've discovered, after this time I've been here, this church, is that we're a lot different. There's a lot of differences amongst us. And this is what's cool: whether you're right or left, you're all looking towards Jesus in the centre. And you look across and you see, that's my family. Whoever is in different places, we can all agree that we need to come to Jesus; we need to bring people to Jesus. This is the beauty of the vision of being a church without walls. And I pray to the Lord give us wisdom and strength and perseverance to actually continue to develop it, so we're going strong for twenty-five years.”
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November 22, 2015 · Proverbs 4:23
Guard Your Heart
“The gospel of Jesus Christ is this good news that tells you that, even though you feel like you're just a piece of crap, even though you feel like no one loves you, that you're not worthy of anything — that God loves you. That God died for you. He sent his son there to die for you. You are forgiven. It doesn't matter, the lies of your self-hatred. The truth of the gospel is something, as you start to allow it to penetrate those things. And you know what? Sometimes we have to hold on to our self-hatred even. It's, like, our last-ditch of selfishness. I'm going to hate myself even though I know I'm not supposed to. And so we hear — it's selfishness that we can hold on to. And the gospel tells you, no. Christ loves you. Hold on to that truth of the word of God. Because the word is written on your heart. And Christ died for all that crap in your life. And you are clean and you are free. You can't let it hold you back any longer. This is the gospel, of the good news of the word of God. And we can put the word in our heart. And as I started — I was walking through some things with a ministry counsellor, who's kind of counselling me on what it is that God is forming next. And I'll let you know when I know. But one of the things I learned in all of this is this idea that — what is my holy discontent? What is the thing that upsets you about the world and about the church and everything? And my holy discontent is that the church is losing its trust in the word of God.”
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November 15, 2015 · John 11:32–35
Healing In Mourning
“Let the Spirit be at work with those who have the Spirit within them. Together, you can bear each other's burdens. And then finally, at some point, God brings us to this place of acceptance. He lets us see these tiny slivers of hope and the resurrection. He shows me that the future of this church, of FreeChurch, is going to be awesome. That God is doing amazing things in Toronto. This is God's church, and he does what he wills, and he calls people where he wills for his purposes. And in my own life, I see, like — I know there's going to be something great that God is going to use me in ministry. And this is the part of the acceptance. He's like, ah — I weep, and yet I expect. Mourning is a part of life. It allows us to feel the reality of our humanity. You know, if you don't let your mourning out, it will just swallow you. You won't even know it. Weeping over death precedes coming back to life. Tears are the sign that hope is something that will give us much more than we ever dreamt of. So our God is a God who feels pain with us. Our Jesus is a Jesus who cries with us. He died for us. He lives in us.”
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October 25, 2015 · Matthew 14:28–29
Walking On Water
“Even though his faith fails, he also is encouraging others' faith. Isn't that a crazy thing when you think about it? This is the very first time in the book of Matthew where human beings call Jesus the Son of God. Because Peter is walking on the water, and seeing what Jesus can do with him and restoring his faith and all that, bringing him back on the boat — when they see all of that, they finally go, ding. Jesus is the Son of God. And Peter's whole part of that is very important. Peter's faith was not perfect, but it was worth it. Peter's faith was not consistent, but it was already greater than the other disciples. He's the only one who steps out of the boat. The others kind of want to watch at a distance. … Not bad for a little faith, is it? And what would us as we walk, even if we fail — what can he accomplish? This is why it's so important for our own restoration project to recognize the act of faith following the call of God. Every single person who has decided to follow Jesus truly is given the Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit within our hearts is on a restoration project. We're in continual renovation, continual recreation. And sometimes Jesus just calls us to do something that seems impossible.”
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October 11, 2015 · Luke 17:15–16
The Wholeness Of Thankfulness
“These lepers had to stay away from everyone. This is, like, a high social cost. All they had was each other. People were afraid of you. People were disgusted by you. If you were a leper, you were told to stay at a distance. That's what it says at the beginning of the paragraph there. It says they stood at a distance and they called out with a loud voice, because they need Jesus to hear them, because they're following the law. Can you imagine that — not only the physical and the social pain, but the psychological pain that goes with that? Being ostracized, being forced into isolation, facing day after day rejection, thinking ill of yourself. You would start to think of yourself. And on top of this physical, social and psychological pain, there's spiritual pain. They're not allowed to go near the temple of God. They're not allowed to worship in the way that they were commanded to. They're not allowed to go to Jerusalem. They weren't even allowed to go to a local synagogue. They had to stand off in a distance, just believing that they're unacceptable to God. That God doesn't love them. Maybe God's angry at them. That God doesn't care about them. And so these scream out — Jesus, have mercy on us. And it's not a specific request for healing. They just want mercy. Can you show us some mercy? If anyone's going to care for us or show us any little droplet of love — Jesus, mercy on us. I want you to notice that their voices are loud, because this becomes a theme in this section. Do something. Jesus, just please do something.”
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September 20, 2015 · Revelation 3:14–16
We're Sorry For Being Lukewarm
“Recognizing that we still need Jesus to keep putting on the salve. Stop pretending that you're clothed in righteousness, because we all have nothing but rags, no matter how much we've helped the poor, and no matter what we're doing and how welcoming we are. We are cold and we need the warmth of God. So remember, we had this hard wire in us to physically and spiritually go to the path of least resistance. That is the beast of spiritual resistance. This is sin in us, and we're going to be tempted to take it easy, to rest in our laurels. We're going to forget. If we become complacent, then Jesus has displacement. … And it's just easy to become lukewarm. So we have to say sorry. We are sorry for being lukewarm, and we have to open the door to Jesus. Let him do his work in us, so that he can do work through us. Otherwise we're just useless, and we come to church here, preacher preach, sing songs, and just go back to our comfort door. The comfort zone — shut the door. Behold, we lock the door, but Jesus knocks, and he offers more.”
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September 13, 2015 · Revelation 2:12–13
We're Sorry For Licentiousness
“He's like, it's not about what you do or what you give. It's actually about your faith in God. And if you have faith in God, that's what saves you. You don't need any institution to save you, right? … And that's what actually brings you the freedom from your sin. Now, he took the stand of faith alone, and quickly some people took it and started pushing it further. I mean, we talked about this earlier in the series, where one of the dangers the church has, and we have to say sorry for, is legalism. Making too many rules. That was a big danger in the church. The other danger is to go the opposite way. And basically what he had to deal with was this idea of people just saying, the law — there's no laws for Christians. There's no rules. Throw away the Ten Commandments. There's nothing. It's just, you do what you want in God. There's a freedom from the law, in that sense. And what Luther ended up calling it was antinomianism. Against the law. So you can say to Christians, you shouldn't do that, because that's law, that's wrong. Meanwhile the New Testament's full of Paul and Jesus and everyone saying, hey, don't do that, that hurts you. So when you believe in faith alone, it doesn't equal antinomianism. We are, in that sense, free from the law. The law doesn't save us. But grace doesn't mean licentiousness is okay. The fact that God loves us and has freed us through grace doesn't mean you can just do whatever you want. Salvation by faith alone in Jesus does not mean that you can do whatever you want.”
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August 30, 2015 · Philippians 1:27–29
We're Sorry For Lacking Joy
“Joy is the most infallible sign of the existence of God. So when you're amidst your coworkers and they're just grumbling and complaining, and you're a joyous person — you know what they're seeing? They're seeing God, that he exists. They may not really recognize it, but you're showing God's existence in your joy. As we walk this path, each other, those who bring us joy in our lives — like, we look at them and we're seeing the very face of God. And you can be the very face of God to others, as you allow the joy, the Spirit, to grow in you through your testings, through your trials. Helps prove God's existence. So we have this chance. We have this chance to hold on to Christ, to look at him, to start to grow in a joy which is beyond comprehension. So let's just say it. Let's say sorry for lacking joy. And then even more, let's begin to rejoice in everything. I pray for you. God, there are amongst us those who are hurting right now. They've had relationships go sour and tear them apart and hurt their hearts. They've had people take away their joy. They have loved ones who are hurting and it is very difficult right now. But God, we pray that we would be a community that would surround them with love, that we would mourn with them as they mourn. We would be there for them. We would help protect that joy, that gift that you put in them, in their spirit. We allow that, Lord God, to maintain.”
“Let us journey towards joy.”
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August 16, 2015 · Romans 14:1–4
We're Sorry For Scandalizing
“This is talking about a faith that is weak, a faith that doesn't quite understand the realities behind things. And so it's saying, hey, someone who has this faith that doesn't quite understand that the Lord allows this — then you allow them to stand before the Lord for themselves. So I want to point out a couple of things with that. The first one is, when we understand Romans 14, we've got to do a few things. First of all, you've got to be true to this text in the context. You have to be true to all of the Bible. … Because very clearly, if you look at the next text, he's talking about matters. Matters are clean, things that are about good, they're acceptable to God, they're pure, there's no condemnation with these things. The next slide will kind of help point out — in Romans 13, moral sins are considered unacceptable. So Paul's very clear, you can't do these moral sins. So he's not talking about sins. He's also in Romans 16, later, shows that doctrinal sins are unacceptable. If you have a wrong doctrine of God, you don't just say, oh, whatever. There's things that we speak to. We're talking about a range of an area which is not in the black or the white. There's this kind of grey area with Christians. And we're saying, what's acceptable and what's not within being a Christian?”
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August 2, 2015 · 1 Thessalonians 4:13
We Are Sorry For End Times Hysteria
“We need to be the ones who are giving people a positive picture, giving people hope. And what we're doing is fearmongering the whole time. It's not helping. What we should be showing them is the hope we have in Jesus. Eschatology is the study of the last things, and it is important, but it's not all important. We can't throw the baby with the bath water, but we can't get obsessed. We need to keep an eye on what's happening, to determine the spirit of Antichrist as it's at work. Someday, there will be some Christians who will be there when the Antichrist is revealed. The only hope then, it's going to be to deny the lie — yet to deny it — and just wait for Jesus to come and destroy the Antichrist. But even then, we're going to have to keep on with our normal lives, working, eating, having confidence in Jesus. What he's doing is, he has a plan. There's going to be victory for him. Because whoever the Antichrist is, he will not win. We just need to simply stay calm and carry on with Jesus. Keep an eye out. Don't be deceived by the hucksters with all their predictions. Or by the Antichrist who wants to take away your Christian convictions.”
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July 12, 2015 · Ephesians 2:11–13
We're Sorry For Being So Divided
“Jewish people hurt by those who call themselves Christians, excluding them. It comes from sin ultimately. And the only thing that's overcoming that is love. The only thing that is overcoming this is forgiveness and repentance and grace. Because that's what Jesus did for us. What Jesus did for the world. Just take a moment to look around this church for a second. I was thinking about this idea of God taking two people and making one. This is the new humanity. And to me it's beautiful. I look at you guys and I'm saying, the gospel isn't lying. Look at it. It's right in front of you. There are many nations that have been brought together under Jesus. The church is maturing. Right here in Toronto. … I look at this and I'm just like, thank you Jesus for what you're doing. Because the world as much as it sees the uglyness of the church, there is this beautiful side to the church that's there. It might not get much on the media. But Jesus is doing something. He's building something. … But we still need to say that we're sorry. We still need to build relationships up so that the hatred doesn't slip back in. One church, one people, one Jesus, one baptism, one faith, one hope, one love. Thank you, God, for your gift of unity. We're sorry for being so divided.”
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May 31, 2015 · Acts 3:1–10
At The Beautiful Gate
“I know that sometimes, like Jesus, God does not let the cup pass from people. But I also know that we're called to pray, and to hope, and to accept that God can do things. He can intervene, and we need to pray for that. You need to hope for that. See, the early church didn't know. They were probably wondering, what would happen when Jesus left them physically? Could they survive? Would they be destroyed? What about the healings? What about the redemption? And in this chance encounter outside the temple of God, all these questions get answered. The name of Jesus is powerful. It continues to work. People continue to be healed. Those who feel that they're never able to enter the presence of God are brought in leaping, praising. It's a hope, I think, that the church we cannot let go of, right? We start to lower expectations. We just turn our problems into financial figures. Our Jesus is bigger than that. He might not be here physically, but he's still hospitable. He still cares for the outcast and for the ostracized. He might not be able to be gazed upon with our physical eyes, but he's still missional, still reaching after people. He's still chasing after people. We might not be able to touch him with our hands, but he's still discipling. He's still teaching us. He's helping us to look at the world in new ways. And so I want us to accept hope, trust, cry out to God for our hearts, for our beautiful gates. Shall we pray for you now? … Lord, we come to you.”
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May 17, 2015 · Matthew 20:1–16
The Generous Employer
“Our world says that the person who works the longest receives the most pay. But God's kingdom — generosity prevails. It determines everything. It's not a work-or-a-pay situation. It's all grace. And as hard as that is sometimes, we need to be thankful. For if God wasn't crazy gracious in this way, we would get no pay. None of us deserve to be united to him. We've all mistreated God in many ways every day, and yet all he gives is grace. God's not required to reward us by our own human concepts. The kingdom of God is this radical new view of value, and he flips everything upside down. God is incomprehensibly good. You can't understand it. So the point that sometimes we don't think he's good. … It's — God is just. No one should be saved. Ah, their minds got blown. … No one deserves it. Jonah got very angry. The reason he didn't go to Nineveh was because he knew that God was generous. And he didn't like God for it. One of those darn Ninevites killed. Because of what they did to his people. … As Christ followers. And I was like, ah, why do they get that? God has the right to use and give his possessions and blessings as he sees fit. We cannot determine it.”
“Let us learn to rejoice with them.”
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May 3, 2015 · Luke 14:1–6
Great Banquet Etiquette
“If only those at the Pharisee meal will listen to Jesus and accept his invitation, then they're going to get a spot at the biggest and the best, most prestigious banquet of all. And this original speaker was presumptive. … Let's not miss the banquet. I think the church of North America is in danger of being the church of the establishment. Are we looking for the brightest and the bestest? Jesus isn't. At least not exclusively. Do we want to impress our cool neighbours and show co-workers — oh, church people can be hip too? … Are we willing to invite the annoying, socially awkward person from work to our dinner parties? Do we show the socially undesirable hospitality, or a subtle undercurrent of hostility? I believe that this whole story about Jesus eating with the Pharisees is about him laying down the conditions by which the Pharisees are going to be allowed to join the kingdom of God. You want the kingdom of God? You got to be a good host and you got to be a good guest. And this is how it works. I love this, because he's not excluding them — which is what we often do in our society.”
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April 19, 2015 · Acts 1:1–3
Forty Days After Suffering
“The problem is that we deny the authority of that king. We deny the kingdom of God. And humanity has always been ignoring the rule of God. We rebelled against the kingship of God. So when Jesus comes to earth, he's like, here's the kingdom. Welcome to the kingdom. Jesus is the inauguration, the continuation, and the culmination of the kingdom of God. And he made this kingdom finally present on earth in a human form, as a God-man. And now sometimes we kind of mistake the church. We mistake the church for the kingdom of God. Is the church the kingdom of God? You know what I would say the church is? The church is a gathering of people who are the servants of the king who rules over the kingdom of God. Do you get the difference there? The kingdom of God is everything is over. But we are the servants of the kingdom of God. And by his will, we're helping make tangible on earth the kingdom of God. Where God rules over every sphere of life, every inch of this universe. And we know that there's false kings at work. There's a false king who's setting himself up as a king. They could be evil angels. They could be evil nations. They could be evil corporations. They could be evil individuals. Or it could just be like the evil that's in our heart. The kingdom of God was established by Jesus on this earth, and he conquered over death.”
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March 29, 2015 · Matthew 21:1–11
The King Of Humility
“Before we move to Easter, we need to cease to want to be Caesar. And we know that we have a problem with ego. So let's let go. Let go our ego. Don't rush to get the rushing record. … Let's look at our king and see that he chose a form of suffering, of servitude. Let's reject our culture's call to be small kings of all things. Recognize that you don't need recognition. Seek to attend to your attention-seeking way with your friends. Because in the end, our greatest claim to fame is all the same — and it will stop us from stumbling. We are loved and cherished and given a position of service to the humble king. What I love about the table — as I hope and I pray and I believe — that it's one of the few places we have where we realize we need humility. I've never seen yet someone, like, taking a selfie with the — as a moment here when you recognize what you need. That you're not enough. You don't need to be enough. Jesus is all we need. God has given us all we need. We are dependent on him. We need him. We're not strong on our own. We're not kings. But we're part of the royal family.”
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March 15, 2015 · Matthew 11:1–6
Doubt And Disappointment
“He's just simply restating, recontextualizing the reports that John already knows. He's asking John — look again. Jesus might not directly answer your frustrations. He might call us to look again. And then he gives this strange blessing-warning combination. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me. The word is scandalizo. Blessed is anyone who is not scandalized because of me. Blessed is anyone who doesn't turn their back on the Messiah because he's not meeting their expectations. What I love about this line is that this is powerful, like, blessing-judgment combo punch. Do you hear it in there? John wants judgment. And Jesus is bringing blessing. So Jesus blesses him with a possible hint of judgment. Blessed is the one who doesn't get judged for judging me wrong over judgment. There's just this little tinge to this line. I think John would have loved — you to be like, oh, it's a blessing. All right. Well, there's just — Jesus is still doing this thing. He's still blessing. Well, there's just this judgment lurking in that sentence. I think John would have appreciated. Jesus will be the judge. It's just not time. Right now, everyone needs mercy, even doubting John. It makes you wonder a little bit about Jesus in the situation. How is he feeling? How much did this doubt from his biggest, his most important supporter hurt him? How much did this message from John sting him? And was he worried? The people that heard it must have been asking Jesus, like — did you hear John? Oh, what are you going to do about it? Jesus is amazing. He lets the people know that he doesn't question John's questioning.”
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March 1, 2015 · Luke 9:57–62
Let The Dead Bury The Dead
“Do you put your children before Jesus, or your parents before Jesus? Or do you put your friends, your circle of friends, as a ways in which you subtly love them more than Jesus? I think we all need to do this. Looking to our own lives. See the places where people we love might be pulling us away from discipleship. We'll not be on purpose, but it's there. Or I started thinking of this for myself. Like, am I doing this to others? These are ways in which our own selfishness makes us act in ways which demand the attention from the people that we love, just to kind of show. We secretly want them to show us how much they love us. Maybe even more than Jesus. We have to be willing to truly look into our hearts, count the cost of discipleship, to realize that if there's anything in the way of Jesus, it's got to be called out. We got to let them call it out. Even a modern disciple has to expect there's going to be some cost for following Jesus. Now there's a reward, of course. You get to serve the king of kings. You're given the Holy Spirit of life living within you. You receive eternal life. You receive the gifts of the Spirit. And now you can have a joy and a peace which transcends your understanding in the midst of all this discomfort. It's beautiful, but make no mistake. This Jesus life, it comes out of cost. You may lose popularity.”
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February 8, 2015 · John 4:48–50
Healing The Royal Official's Son
“Basically we need to just get on board with what the Spirit's doing. Finally, in terms of discipling, I want to talk about a mature, obedient faith. The mission of this church is to create mature disciples. That's one of the lines in our mission statement. People are kind of asking about this — "mature". What does this maturity mean? It means to trust in God fully, to not be washed around. Let's begin accepting Jesus at his word. Do we need God to serve us? Do we need God to do things for us so that we obey? That's the sign of immature faith. If we're always focused on what we're getting from our faith, on what God is doing for us, then we start to forget who we are, and more importantly we start to forget who Jesus is. We don't follow Jesus as a self-help strategy. We follow Jesus because he's the king of the universe, and he deserves our loyalty. Now, Jesus does love and care for his disciples. He blesses his disciples. But that's not guaranteed materially. He will bless us spiritually — but some of those blessings are things like perseverance, endurance. Which means you're persevering through some bad stuff and you're enduring some pain. There is a cost to discipleship. There's a loss that comes. We're gonna explore this as we enter into Lent season. Now, Jesus is asking us to move past our faith based on what he did for us. He knows, he understands, that we come to him and sometimes that's how we begin things, because we're immature, we're children in the faith.”
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January 25, 2015 · John 1:43–46
Come and See
“Sometimes we forget that good people need Jesus too.”
“Come and see. Come and be free. Come and follow me.”
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January 4, 2015 · Matthew 3:13–17
The Hospitable, Missional, Discipling Jesus
“But the point is, where's your heart condition at with people? Do you have this loving state of mind with people? You are inherently interested, as creatures of God. You're welcoming them. Do you want to spend time with them? Or do you see a tax collector — aka a parking attendant — and say, I don't want to have coffee with that person? Because Jesus is having coffee with a parking attendant. Do you see what I'm saying? The people that aren't liked — that's how Jesus is doing this. And even people who might be really well liked, but are trying to rank themselves in the scale, Jesus is blowing the scale apart. Saying to John, would you do me this favour? And where's this coming from? Do you know where this is coming from? This is because Jesus is so intimately connected to the Father, that this is the love of the Father, the hospitality of the Father. This is the problem that Israel had, and the Pharisees had, and that we have, with God. Is that we think of God as up in the sky with a big stick going — every time you do the wrong thing, go to that wrong website, or you didn't pray enough, or you didn't do this enough. You see what the ruler is. Oh, sorry, God. That's often our picture of God. … And God is a gracious God. God is a loving God. He's a loving parent.”
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December 28, 2014 · Luke 2:41–52
Grew in Wisdom and Stature
“So wisdom is about you growing in your healthy habits, and your ways of being. The more — as you grow — wisdom — it's — as you start to apply the wisdom of scripture into your life — making it part of it — you grow in wisdom. That's what — it's not one-to-one correspondence. … And part of that is going to be what's been happening every year as they grow that extra year. You see the kids — we don't see it ourselves sometimes, right? … Wisdom is — is exponential. I think it's one of those things where — you got a little wisdom when you're, like, six — you start to learn a principle — like — oh — be kind to people. If that keeps growing in you — by the time you're thirty, you're a wonderful woman, or man. And by the time you're fifty, you're beloved by a community. … It grows on top of itself.”
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November 9, 2014 · Proverbs 18:24
Closer Than a Brother
“But every friendship is like that, right? There's a unique thing that happens in the friendship. Because God's in the middle of it. And that unique experience of love that God gives us, as human beings, for each other — is this beautiful thing that God has put his fingerprint on. So I want you to also think about the circle of joy as this amazing part of spiritual friendship. And every friendship as a triad. And realize that your friendships are spiritual formation. You are being formed into the image of Christ in friendships. There will be a few people in your life where you're going to form a spiritual friendship that's so strong that it's going to be like a family member. … You know — the type of person where your kids are going to call them auntie or uncle — even though they're not related. This gift of God — this friendship — this is spiritual realities. And we must protect them, and we must cultivate them. And God gives us wise principles that we've been learning — to remember and consider as we get closer to people. He tells us to avoid getting too friendly with people who lie, and gossip, and use people.”
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October 26, 2014 · Zechariah 8:3–5
The Spirituality of Play
“We're going to play, because we're not going to be crushed. As Christians, that should be even more of a reality. We play because life isn't hopeless. We're created to do so much more. We play with the children. We watch children being played with. … We're looking at the reality. Those beautiful things — those dogs that are waiting for their master — and there's, like — some day that master — our master — is coming back — and we get to play like we're supposed to play. Beautiful? We wait, and we rest, and we play. It's a sign of the future to come. We play because it's one of the most amazing things that God gave to us in creation. … That's the spirituality of play.”
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September 28, 2014 · James 5:14
Oil on the Beard
“I grew up in a pretty Baptist church, where we take the Bible quite literally. There's a couple places where we don't quite do things. I didn't see the oil thing happen too often — or this wasn't talked about. I hope it happened. I just want to let you know — if you're sick, and you would like the elders to pray for you — we will do that. … And we have done it. So — something about oil, when you pray — this is the special way of making a physical sign of the power of the Holy Spirit. So — that's magic oil. You got the wrong oil. No. It's — it's a symbol of the faith of the believers — that God can heal this. … But I promise you that if you don't try, you don't know. There's something about praying for healing that's important. So this is part of the oil. It's the spirituality of oil in the Christian's life.”
“Let us set ourselves aside for God.”
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September 21, 2014 · John 2:1–11
Why More Wine?
“I've seen alcohol rip apart other members of my family. And they would have probably been destroyed as well, if it wasn't for them finding Jesus. So we understand this is a serious thing. That abuse of alcohol is one of the most dangerous social ills possible. The Bible says wine is a mocker (Proverbs 20:1) — that many people throw away their lives, getting really excited about mixed bowls of wine. (Proverbs 23:29–35) The Bible talks about how it can turn you into a fool — might be on one particular night, or it might be for the rest of your life. We're not trying to shirk away from the reality that the abuse of alcohol is a major issue. But we need to balance that danger with the biblical truth that wine is a blessing to humanity. This is the truth of scripture. God made it work this way in our lives for a reason. He gave us wine for a reason. It gladdens the heart. (Psalm 104:15) It brings joy, uniquely. It's a sacred gift to us, that needs to be properly respected. If it's enjoyed properly, it can show the joy of God in the midst of a community in a way that nothing else can. There's nothing quite like the happiness of a wedding. When you're in the — you're at a wedding — it's good; it's holy; it's sacred; and you're excited about the couple.”
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August 17, 2014 · Ephesians 6:15–16
Keep the Peace, Keep the Faith
“You share it with your small group, sometimes. I'm just one person. Maybe someone who does spiritual direction, as a way of helping people who — walk through their spiritual life. There's a lot of attacks. And I'm not trying to — I don't want to say that — oh — you have depression — you just need more faith. … That's the easy kind of answer. That's — we know that that's not real, right? But it doesn't mean the answer isn't faith. What it means is — faith isn't easy. It's still the answer. If you can hold on to the faith — that's the one thing that gets you through that time. You just have enough faith in God — enough faith in — the fact that he loves you. That can be the one thing that helps get you through it. But it doesn't mean it's easy. … So you look at — she's not real. … Having faith is the answer to a lot of these issues. It's the shield that protects you. But I'm not saying faith is the easy thing. I'm not saying that that shield isn't heavy sometimes.”
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August 3, 2014 · Ephesians 6:10–12
On Satan and Archons
“Also — who knows what's happening with the story that's being written? Why did he create humanity? … Why is it allowed to — the devil — to tempt? My heart says — I trust that this universe is going to be better off because freedom exists. For some reason, the story will be way more beautiful than if there was just all automatons and robots that God created. And the ability to have freedom means that someone has to be able to do evil. … And that's going to take something special — which is what he's doing here, with humanity. He becomes human. We're part of — like — we're going to take real part of this story. He becomes human to show how good he is. And the fact that this evil exists helps us recognize how much more the goodness is, right? One of the most beautiful things to me in the universe is the cross of Christ — which is horrible, because it's a murder. Somehow, it spells this beautiful redemption that brings things together. This is God's game plan.”
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July 13, 2014 · Psalm 51:10–12
Create in Me a Clean Heart
“All we have is him. All we have is his grace. And we can hope that he will return it to us. Continue to call to him. Restore to me the joy of my salvation. Because only God can forgive the evil that's built up between you and him. I talked about the Holy Spirit. … He's there. He's in you. But it's become so dark that you have to let him start to repair the other parts around it — and slowly you'll start to hear him speaking in that one area in your life. And so we have to recognize that all we have is God. Only God can come in and clean your heart. Only God can stoop down and restore the joy of your salvation. Only God can give you a period of renewal — making you become new. So we have to call out to him.”
“Let us be a community that truly believes in grace.”
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June 22, 2014 · Luke 16:13
God vs. Mammon
“One is that the answer is more like — what has happened is, Jesus is kind of just dealing with something that happened recently in the news. So he's heard about this story, and he's kind of saying, okay — look at it. This world type of people — look what they do. They act shrewdly with each other. In the physical realm, they do whatever they can to get the money. They work as hard as they can. … Whatever they can do to get what they want. Maybe he's saying, don't do that physically, but spiritually. Maybe we should be working harder, and kind of doing whatever it takes to get the spiritual truth. Act shrewdly, spiritually, O sons of light. So in this case, it's not really defending what the manager has done with all the cutting off. … How's that sit with you? To me, that's kind of — it doesn't quite sit well with my spirit. And I started to think about it. One of the problems is that Jesus explicitly calls the manager dishonest. … And we're also going to see that, in a moment, Jesus applies this story to actual money. He talks about what to do with your money. So it's not just talking about spiritual truth and things. He's talking about cold, hard cash.”
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June 8, 2014 · Psalm 24:1–2
Everything Is the Lord's
“And stewardship means we have to take care of it; to watch over it. And proper stewardship is actually worship. … It means ascribing our money as under the Lordship of God. … If we truly love God, we're going to show it by how we view and how we use money. … You want to see what you're in danger of idolizing, or putting in front of God? Go on your internet and your phone, and look down your money — how you spent it. … Some people, it might be music, right? Spend a lot of money on music gear; concerts; MP3s. Other people, it might be sports; entertainment. Other people, it's cars. … Or it could be something like your property. Could be your romantic partner. It could be technological gadgets. It could be books. It could be education. Or power. We can't just say, oh, I love God. We need to put our money where our mouth is. And so today I want to propose three simple ways that we can demonstrate that we truly understand the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. And it's pretty simplistic, but it's profound, if we can learn to actually live in this light. First of all, we have to give to God. Give to God. We have to make sure we don't waste it. And thirdly, we have to help people. If you truly see God over money in your life, you're going to give it back to him; you're going to take care of it wisely; and you're going to use it to help people. So let's go through this in step.”
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April 27, 2014 · 2 Corinthians 5:16–19
Humanity 2.0
“The passage is in this context of concentrating on resurrection. This is an Easter message that he's giving here. This Easter spirituality begins with the reality of the Holy Spirit. … (2 Corinthians 5:5) You have the down payment. The heavenly house is yours. It's ours. … The entire earth will be renewed. God has already started this. He's working on us. That's how he's begun. We are the new creation. And the earth groans for us to finally sit in our homes. (Romans 8:19–22) We are already the anticipation of the new creation. And it's a very hefty realization. The resurrection is real in our lives. Behold. It says that in the Greek. They didn't translate it. Behold. Take a look — see. Now. Behold. The new creation has already happened. How? Romans tells us — sin is crucified. It's dead in you. Your sin nature is gone. (Romans 6:6) And you have the Holy Spirit. So it's already happened.”
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April 6, 2014 · John 13:1–5
Take Up Your Towel
“Jesus's service is coming out of a confidence of his position with the Father. In verse 3 we read, "the Father had put all things under his power." So this is not a person who's trying to diminish themselves, or feel, you know — they're — uncomfy. This is the Lord himself, knowing — with all his power — that the best way to demonstrate it is to serve others. He doesn't need to flex his power, because he's secure. When you see people flex — and you probably have noticed, if it's their position — sometimes you're wondering, why is this person giving me attitude? Or maybe even just when you go to get served — sometimes you have someone flexed out — you're like, what's going on here? … They need it to somehow make it clear that they have power. It's a natural human thing, and I'm sure every single one of us has done it. What Jesus is trying to make clear is, we don't need to show that you have leverage. … Because, let's be honest — if you read any good business books on leadership now, Jesus's message has gotten out there. People know — you hear it — servant leadership.”
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March 16, 2014 · 1 Timothy 4:7–8
Train Yourself to Be Godly
“We've seen so many televangelists stealing money from people in the church. What we're hearing here is: don't get scammed. Keep your eyes open. Make sure you use your head as well as your heart. Don't be taken for a ride as you try to live out your faith. I want to throw this out here to you. Don't trust what I'm saying just because of me saying it. I hope that we can honour our leaders and trust them. You learn to trust them because you compare what they're saying to the Word of God. You start examining it for yourself, and you go, okay — this is true. But always be testing the word. Always be ready to look out for people taking advantage of others. … "Rather, train yourself to be godly." Another way of interpreting this — I love this translation: "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness." Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Paul is saying he's not ultimately responsible for your spiritual vitality. Yes, he'll be judged harsher than everyone else. (James 3:1) He has to make sure he teaches the truth. But, in the end, you're going to decide for yourself whether you're growing in the faith. He can try to equip you. We can try to give you sermons, and give you times to worship, help you with small groups. But, in the end, you must train yourself for the purpose of godliness. … You become more godly the more work you put in. I'll unpack that. I want to be careful. It doesn't mean that your work, or your spiritual discipline, saves you. You're saved no matter what, if you put faith in Jesus Christ. You're given that gift.”
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March 9, 2014 · Matthew 4:1–11
Giving It Up
“(Matthew 3:16–17) So he hears this voice, and then the Spirit descends upon him as a dove. He has got this power. He could probably just feel it coursing through his veins. He had the Spirit, but now he is officially launching his messianic tour. And so he has this power, and he is ready. And what does he do? He flees to the desert, and won't eat for forty days. What is that? Why is he doing that? He is trying to hurt himself? Why would Jesus, the Son of God — divine, come into humanity — not eat for forty days and forty nights? … And we have to recognize that there is a reason for this. We start to learn it as we pull the passage apart. Let's get into it a little deeper. I would say what we are hearing is that he receives power; he receives honour; and his reaction to it is to give it up. "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and after fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry." The most obvious statement in all of Scripture. … I don't know how many people have fasted. I am not trying to make you Pharisees or anything.”
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February 23, 2014 · Exodus 35:29–35
Creativity and Work
“That's how powerful this thing they're about to create becomes. I always think that's really amazing: that an artifact crafted by human hands becomes something that cannot be touched by human hands. It's so holy. … But the community is engaged in activity together. They're being led by two men who are guided by the Spirit to direct this collective work. They're given a common task: build me the temple of God — or the tabernacle of God; the tent of God. God cares about construction workers. God honours the trades. He even goes so far as to have the Holy Spirit come upon people and infuse them with the very creative talents it takes for this community to build this tent, and this ark, and these instruments. This is the story of Bezalel and Oholiab. "Then Moses said to the Israelites, See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, understanding, with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills to make artistic designs for work in gold and silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts." So once this creative assignment is given to the collective people — make a tent to meet God — the Holy Spirit actually comes down on people and empowers them to do it. And especially two men, who are to lead the charge. And the captain of the team is Bezalel, the son of Uri. This is the great-grandson of Caleb.”
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January 19, 2014 · Luke 10:33–35
The Spirituality of Neighbouring
“He thinks, if that man's dead, and I touch him, I am unclean; I can't go to the temple. He thinks, if that man is a sinner, and I touch him, I am unclean, and I can't go to the temple and do my job. If that man is a Samaritan, or a foreigner — if I touch him, I am unclean, and I cannot perform the tasks in the holy temple of God. And so, for all his reasons, he leaves the man to die. "So too a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side." (Luke 10:32) Next we have a Levite, who is actually a lesser member of the temple, who's doing more menial tasks. The Levite comes by, and he also leaves the man to die. Why? Perhaps he's afraid. … So the Levite leaves right away. "But a Samaritan." Those three words — "but a Samaritan" — the whole room would have been like this. Why? Because they understood what was happening. There was this storytelling rule that the Jewish culture had at that time. It was called the rule of three, and you'd often tell your stories in threes like that. It's kind of like — a priest and a Levite and an ordinary Jew went into a bar. That's what they're used to. And so the last person is kind of the hero of the story.”
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January 5, 2014 · Genesis 1:1–2
The Spirituality of Everything
“He built us a garden to live in; he walked with us; he walks with us through each stage of our human existence. Spirit of God is everywhere. He's in everything. Take a look around you. It's spiritual. The Spirit is pulsating. It comes from the Spirit of God, who hovered over the waters. And I want you to look at the chaos of your life. You could look at it like Tiamat. The deep, the dark monster of chaos trying to eat my soul: my work schedule, my school schedule, my crazy relationships. All this looks like it's a monster. … Start working, moulding it, shaping it. It's all part of the material which he can help change and rearrange. It's either a monster to flee from, or something you can enter in with the confidence of God, and recognize he's ready to start doing creative spirituality — work through you to help change. The Spirit of God is with you. … If you are a follower of Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit of God within you — the same Spirit that hovered over the waters. I don't believe God stopped creation after seven days. It says he stopped after the sixth day and took a day of rest. … Otherwise you take an eternity of rest.”
“So let us be an active part of God's creation.”
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December 30, 2012 · Luke 2:52
Grow Up in Jesus
“We're either getting closer to our Lord, or we're moving further apart. There's no middle ground. Either getting closer to Jesus, or further away from Jesus. Part of that's because Jesus keeps going. Jesus has a plan — like, he's doing things. He's moving. He's growing his kingdom. He's moving things. So if you just kinda stop and go, okay, this is a pretty good spot, then he's going further down the road, and you're further away from him. So we gotta recognize that there's no positivity in just kinda being where you're at. There's positivity in growing closer in Christ. It doesn't mean you have to be perfect. It just means, hey, am I growing? This is what God wants me to do. I'm growing. And so if you are growing, give yourself a break. You're not perfect. Hey — where's God taking you? And, you know, revel in that small victory instead of beating yourself up. … You gotta have a conversation with the Lord. I'm sorry — I need you to take me for that. Just start growing again. And like I said, sometimes certain areas we're growing and some certain ones we're not. So it's not, like — you know, it's not easy always to assess exactly what's happening, but you should be able to see in your life upward trajectory in Christ, and growth. That's part of who we are. That's what God expects when the Spirit is connecting us for. If we truly want that type of wisdom, that type of strength, then we need to search for Jesus in our communities, in the word of God, in our worship, in each other, in the Spirit within us.”
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November 4, 2012 · Mark 12:30–31
Love God, Love Others
“We love God because he first loved us. He's given us an ability. He's come into us, and now we can love him back. If he gives us the love to love him with, then that love is an infinite divine love that we can return. We can love our enemies because God loved us when we were enemies. So do you hate yourself? I'm gonna say, you won't overcome that until you love God more than yourself. And only God can give you the love to love him more than yourself. Do you hate the way that you treat other people? That's not gonna change until you start to love other people by letting God start to correct the prejudices in your heart. Learn to love God so passionately that you will love other people more than you love your self-hate or your hate of others. Your inner critic and cynic-skeptic is a sinner and it's septic. Let God correct it. Love God and let his love flow through you. Accept it. Expect it. You'll start looking in the mirror and you'll finally respect it. The love of God. No more games and politics. No more name-calling and folly. Love. Love God. Love others. The way of Jesus calls for it. It demands it. The Holy Spirit is implanted.”
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October 28, 2012 · Mark 10:46–52
Have Mercy on Me
“Well, that was because God knew that that wasn't the mercy that he needed. But we need to ask for mercy, because he's in the business of giving us mercy. He'll give us the mercies that we need. And all he asks us to do is to remember he's merciful — to ask him, to approach him like he's merciful. So I think we need to be bold and start asking Jesus for mercy again. You need to think about Jesus foremost. And so go home today and just say, Jesus, have mercy on me. You know, when you're walking through your day — Jesus, have mercy on me. It's a prayer I — I need to say myself. Also, do what you need to do to hear the voice of Jesus. Don't be distracted by the crowds. Don't let our possessions drag us down through the mud. Get yourself in the path of Jesus. And this day, you know, we have so many things that we need to worry about. Maybe we need to turn off the TV, or turn off the internet, or turn off the radio. Just get alone. Get into some silence to hear his voice. Our Jesus, who is God himself, needed to sneak off in the middle of the morning, get away from everyone, to hear the voice. Who are we to think maybe that we don't need to bother with that, right? That's — we need to get to hear that merciful voice. We need to get ourselves alone to hear it. You know what — means you need to set yourself up along the path, so that when Jesus comes through you have that connection. You know, that chance. And the spiritual disciplines are some of the most amazing ways to do this.”
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October 14, 2012 · Mark 10:21
Give It Up
“It's as easy as saying a prayer once too. The point is, is that prayer self-deception or Christ's reception? True Christianity comes when it's willing to give it up. Now this seems hard when we're hearing this. The call of Jesus says you have to be willing to give it all up. That sounds hard. It's difficult. It sounds impossible. But with God all things are possible. Jesus looks around and he says to the disciples, how hard it is for the rich man to enter the kingdom of God? The disciples were amazed at his words. They don't get, like, that. There's not — what? The rich man not going to heaven? We'll explain that in a second. But Jesus says again, children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were even more amazed when they said to each other, who could be saved? And Jesus looked at them and he said, with man this is impossible. But not with God. All things are possible with God. This is a message. This is possible. We can do this. But notice what he says. It's so hard to enter the kingdom of God. It's a great sort of — mouth of Jesus. It's hard to enter the kingdom of God. Don't tease yourself. You can't play at this Jesus life. The kingdom of heaven is a difficult thing.”
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September 30, 2012 · Mark 9:38–50
Salted with Fire
“He uses the name of Jesus, and it worked. Now, this really upset John. There were twelve senior representatives of the master, and there's a proper order to things. They should have been consulted if anyone wanted to use the name of the master, because, you know, it could get confusing. I think there might even be a little bit more than this. If you read it in its context — it's one of the most important things to do with the scriptures. If you read Mark 9, it's really interesting. Just a little bit earlier, in Mark 9:28, there seems to be maybe a little bit of jealousy behind John's animosity, because what happens is there's this demon in someone, and they're trying to get rid of it, and they can't. … He replied, "Well, this kind can come out only by prayer." Oh, prayer — we didn't try that one. No, I think they did try that one, Jesus. So what's he doing? He's not just saying you should try a prayer. He's basically saying you need to have a life soaked in prayer. You have to be strong in prayer. You have to be consciously soaking yourself in the presence of God. Kind of like we do at the upper room. This idea of truly getting into prayer, getting into the deeper spiritual discipline. You need to do that well. When you hear this, Jesus is saying you've got to be strong in prayer to get this type of demon.”
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September 16, 2012 · Mark 8:27–38
The Confession, the Confusion, and the Concession
“I think what's happening here is he's talking about a sheer selfishness. He doesn't want to lose Jesus. He wants to hold on to him. He doesn't want suffering to be part of this story. But that's a human desire. Selfishness is always counter to the kingdom of God. And so we need to think of what we're doing, and we're doing something for the kingdom. It's not about us. It's easy to make this mistake. I think we do it all the time. We think we get the confession right. Okay, I call Jesus my master. So now I'm going to claim it. All these things. My life is going to be so much better. You know what? I do think Jesus heals things and brings joy, but it's joy in the midst of suffering. Suffering comes with this package. Jesus promised it right here. So we have confusion after the confession, and now Jesus says, time for concession. … If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life is going to lose it, and whoever loses his life for me and for the sake of the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me — or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels. This is the concession. Jesus decides this lesson needs to go out further.”
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May 20, 2012 · John 17:13–14
Sanctify Them by the Truth
“I just want to remind you: there's this thing called the Holy Spirit. This person called the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of holiness. But he's also the Spirit of joy. And the two are not antithetical. They come together. In fact, in holiness there's this true joy. "I have given them your word." This is the Word — the truth of God. And we have received it. We have the Word. It's what we stand on. And you know what? This is what we are hated for. Sometimes the church is hated for stupid things. Some little splinter group might do that — of us. Or just — you know how some Christians might get arrogant and just be jerks. There's this hatred that can come our way. But to be honest, even if those groups did not exist, or those people did not exist, the church would still be hated. How do I know this? Because Jesus was hated for his word. And we should be expecting to be hated. That's what he says here. But the Word is the anchor. The Word of God is this anchor that we have. In a world of madness, it's the one thing that we can cling to. It's the one thing that we can expect: "This will bring me joy." Even in the midst of being hated, you can have joy. The world hates the Word of God. The world hates those who come in the name of God. The world demands conformity to its culture, to its practices, to its attitudes, to its beliefs. And it's really interesting, because we're in this — we have this idea of tolerance in our society of relativism.”
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April 16, 2012 · John 3:16–17
Lifted Up
“I don't know. I'm being honest. I go back and forth on that one. But here — that is kind of a main complaint against Christianity. And one of the things — that's starting to realize is that the condemnation doesn't come from that. And to be honest, most people on most islands far away that never heard the name Jesus are just people like us. And — I — probably call each other names, and fighting with their families, and doing all these little things that we all know are wrong. And so many — somehow, — in his phrase — God will provide. But what I see in the Scriptures is this idea that when you come face to face with Jesus — let me read a little bit further, just after this passage. It says in verse 20: "All who do evil hate the light, and refuse to go near it, for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light, so that others can see what they are doing — what God wants." And what I started realizing is, the one thing that God calls of all people is to respond to the amount of light they're — showing. So if you are in an island — you don't know anything else — God will show as much light as he can — see — and do you respond to that light?”
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April 8, 2012 · John 20:11–18
Resurrection? Are You Kidding Me?
“This is on the first day of the week, if you notice it. People wonder why we worship on Sunday. We call it the Lord's Day, because Jesus came alive from the dead on Sunday. That's why the first Christians started to celebrate and gather on that day — the day that gave proof to Christ being the Son of God. And it all begins with a woman. Mary Magdalene is the first one — she's the first one to see that the tomb of Jesus was empty. There's a very early tradition in the church — and there's kind of a debate and argument about how this all goes — that Mary was a prostitute. The Bible doesn't say that anywhere. And so there's kind of different traditions. And actually, if you go to some churches and you say that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, they take it as a deep offence. The other people take it as a great sign of the glory of the grace of Christ. Whenever — what's going on there — there's one thing that's true: that one of the very first disciples of Jesus was a woman. And actually, we see in the Scriptures that she financially supported him. The ministry of Jesus probably wouldn't have continued as it did, or in the way it could have, if they didn't have the financial support of someone like Mary. What's her reaction? She comes to this tomb. She sees it empty. And she thinks, "I don't know what to do.”
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March 11, 2012 · John 2:18–20
Temple Cleansing
“For even in the temple, the worship could obviously be defiled. It just happened. Even in the temple, the worship could be defiled. True worship was one in which there was a denial of idols — including money, including greed, including power. That's really interesting. Because although Jesus defends his Father's house — he defends the temple as a house of prayer — in Scripture, we don't read or hear of him in prayer there. Very interesting. Where's Jesus praying? We find Jesus praying in a boat, on a lake. We find Jesus praying on a top of a mountain. We find Jesus praying in the countryside. We find Jesus praying all by himself, for forty days and forty nights, in the desert. Why? Because he was the temple of God. Wherever he was, the Spirit of God was there too. So he speaks of himself as the temple of God. And it makes sense, if you think about it. Because the temple was the place where the sacrifices took place in order to atone for the sins of humanity. Because — what happens — it makes sense, if you really think about — people turn their backs on God. And they knew that they did. They knew — in their hearts — they did. People hated one another. People killed one another. People robbed one another. People even robbed one another in the temple.”
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March 4, 2012 · Mark 8:34
Take Up Your Cross
“We live in a sinful generation — but you are freed from sin — and — Holy Spirit regeneration. Are you ashamed of Christ when his name is mentioned publicly? … They didn't know. You keep it quiet when he's mocked? Do you, like, silently accede to a culture's rejection of Jesus and embracing sin? Are you ashamed of his words in the Scriptures? Just want to say: Jesus is not a pushover. He is a forgiver. That is the amazing thing. And if you do misstep, he's quick to forgive when you ask him. He taught forgiveness. It's actually one of the most important teachings in the Scriptures, actually. One of the most powerful things. One of the things that sets us apart from so many other teachings — that we have to turn the other cheek. But at the same time, at some point, he is going to be the boss. Everyone will acknowledge it. And he commanded you to take up your cross. So if you're ashamed of him when he comes back in glory, for all the people who have these stories of suffering horribly — we have to say sorry, or say, "I bore these pains for thee." One of the few things in this life that I couldn't stand would be to shame my father — to bring shame to my mother. I can't imagine doing that.”
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February 26, 2012 · Mark 1:12–15
Desert Time Spent at Lent
“Jesus preaches the kingdom of God has come — or the kingdom of God is near. The time of the kingdom of God is fulfilled. — I want to see the kingdom. Here it is. — It's interesting. Jesus has another tension here. Because sometimes he talks about the kingdom of God as — "It's here." And it makes sense, because he's the king. The kingdom of God is here, because I'm the king. It's here now. Other times he's talking about the kingdom of God — he's talking about the future. "Run for the hills." He talks about all these signs of bad things going to happen. And when the kingdom of God finally arrives — it's kind of like, "Oh, God — what's going on? Is it here, or is it not?" Well, it is. It's there with Jesus. Jesus is the king. And he runs the kingdom of God for his Father. But there's this tension. Scholars call it "realized eschatology" versus "future eschatology." It's realized right now. We already have the kingdom. But there's also the future element: the now, but not yet. There's all these ways to talk about it. The point is: the reign of God breaks in with Christ. It has begun, and it's here. It grows stronger in the church. But it won't rule the earth until Jesus returns. Our job is to repent and believe — repentance and faith.”
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February 12, 2012 · Mark 1:43–44
The Leper Who Wouldn't Listen
“He didn't listen to the instructions of the very person who healed him. Imagine that? Wouldn't he even listen to the very instructions of the person who healed him? He couldn't understand why Jesus would tell him not to tell people. "Why would you tell me not to tell people, Jesus?" He probably thought Jesus was just being shy — that false humility of Jesus, that's so endearing. He reasoned to himself that Jesus couldn't really mean what he said. "I mean, why would Jesus tell me not to tell people?" So — he — didn't make sense to the leper. He wanted to help Jesus. He wanted to spread the word. He wanted to help — but the leper got conned, and there wasn't any gold at the end of his refrain. See what he did? He proclaimed to everyone he walked by: "Jesus healed me. Jesus healed me. Jesus healed me. Jesus healed me" — to anyone he could see. Everyone, everywhere he went. He thought he knew better than Jesus. He thought telling everyone was the best way forward. But Jesus knew better. See, not everything is about getting as many people to hear about what you have to say. Sometimes it's just about making sure the right people hear what you got to say.”
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