Bridgewater Tunkhannock’s Podcast

It’s pretty human to do things in an effort to get other people to like you, approve of you, or to become well known. Jesus challenges us to instead seek God’s approval. When we chase the approval of people, we end up in an impossible rat race, but when we chase the approval of God, we can find rest and peace.

Fame and approval are really the same root idol wearing two outfits—fame is approval at scale, approval is fame within your small circle. Both are about deriving identity from what others think rather than from God.

Our culture is obsessed with comfort, with removing any and all challenge and pain. While that isn’t a terrible goal, when we make it the ultimate goal, we find an empty life - because this life is not meant to be a final destination, but preparation. When we are chasing comfort, we are really trying to control our lives to the point of removing the need for God.

We all want “the good life,” and we chase it through things like more money, a better relationship, and being liked. All of us are chasing something. The question is - do we know what we are chasing and why? 

What I most love about God is the character trait that I least desire in my own life. He loves His enemies. I like loving my friends, but loving those who love me isn’t virtuous, it’s just smart because it benefits me. Jesus didn’t die just to make stupid people smart, He died to make bad people good. That takes extraordinary love of our enemies. Luke 6:2-27 explains not only what extraordinary love looks like, but why it is worth it.

How do you live your best life now? How can we have a successful life? Jesus tells us in Luke 6 that the keys to success are poverty, hunger, weeping, and being cursed, mocked and hated. What is that all about? Did Jesus wake up on the wrong side of bed that day? Many of the things Jesus says seem to turn the world upside down. But Jesus isn’t wrong. We must kill the concept of normal success if we truly want an extraordinary life.

Ordinary religion operates like a club: Following the rules is what gets you in and keeps you in. Jesus’ relationship with the rules kills the ordinary religious scorecard. Instead of a club, God created a family. Keeping the rules didn’t get you into your family, nor does it kick you out. Instead, God’s commands point us toward something even more important than conforming to the rules – loving God and others. 

Children dream of slaying dragons or befriending them. But somewhere in the journey to adulthood, we scale back our visions for greatness and settle for an ordinary life... and then, boring mediocrity. But the Creator of this Universe didn’t make you to be ordinary. Jesus didn’t die on the cross in the hope that you would someday reach the heights of ordinary-ness. Let’s let our 2-dimentional dream of normal die and follow Jesus to the extraordinary life He calls us to. An ordinary church and life is about me, “my people” and my successful commandment-keeping. It is a museum for like-minded saints. Jesus condemns this ordinary church and life in the strongest of language. Instead, he challenges us to be an extraordinary that pursues the despised and loves Jesus more than our way or our rules. Jesus wants a messy-hospital-church for the hurting and hungry and not a beautiful-casket-church concealing the spiritually self-centered and dead.

Before He left, Jesus gave His church a single, unmistakable command: make disciples. It's easy to let good things — programs, groups, routines — quietly become the point, when they were only ever meant to fuel the real mission. This year, we're refusing to be busy without being on assignment, and chasing after the one job that actually matters: helping more people find and follow Jesus.

At the end of Esther 7 everything seems fixed, but there are three chapters left! A new law had to be written, preparations made and then the Jews had to unite and fight for their survival. God’s deliverance still required obedience. But even after that, it wasn’t over. The last phase of God’s victory is setting up a system to remember it. When will you habitually celebrate God’s victories in your life? Joy truly is the serious business of heaven.

It is the plot of endless stories, because we never tire of it. The situation is dark. All hope is lost... but then out of some impossible scenario, the hero shows up and wins the day. The tables are turned. That is the story of Esther 6-7. But how did it happen? Eventually, God always wins. But Esther shows us several tips of how to make sure we are on the Lord’s side.