More Than Bread

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When it comes to prayer, I’m not sure what you are asking for, what you are seeking, or who you are asking Jesus to open the door for, but what if, Jesus message to you in this episode is simply this. Don't quit asking. Don't stop seeking.
Keep on knocking." The open door is coming.  Especially don't give up on someone you've been praying for...
      
Remember, when we pass judgement on someone, what are we doing? We're writing them off. We're giving up on-em. See in Jesus' Kingdom instead of giving up on people, we're gonna pray for people. Instead of writing them off, we're going to lift them up. Instead of telling them they can go to hell...we're gonna ask Jesus to bring heaven to them. Why? Because we want to be part of a move of God that loves people all the way to Jesus and because prayer really matters.

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I think if I lived in the days of Pharisees and Scribes, when I heard Jesus say, "Unless your righteousness exceeds the guys who do it for a living..." I would have heard, "Unless your righteousness goes to infinity and beyond, unless you get more righteous than you ever imagined you could be, you might as well forget it." But that's not Jesus message. Jesus wasn't just looking for a quantity of  righteousness, He was looking for quality of righteousness. He was looking for a different heart, that would love different.

He was looking for people who didn't major in rules and regulations, but rather lived and loved different, against the flow. I hope by the end of this episode, you'll have that challenge in your mind. Let's live different!

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Tsaddaqim? What is that babbling? It's the Hebrew word for the "Righteous Ones." The next part of Jesus' teaching is all about the righteous ones. Who are the righteous ones? According to Jesus it wasn't the pharisees and the scribes (the proffesionally religious people). In this episode we'll unpack it with a look back at Isaiah's description of the righteous ones. Stuff like: Your light will break forth (sound familiar) and your gloom will be as bright as the noonday. When you call God will answer. He'll satisfy your deepest desires. In fact your life will be like a well-watered garden!

Isaiah's words are spoken to broken people. But when God shows up, it's good news for broken people. It's good news because His love is amazing and He calls us to love like that. It's a whole different perspective on righteousness and it makes me want to be able to answer "YES!" to the question, "Are you a Tsaddaqim?" 

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You are the light of the world. And God has no other plan for the darkness. That's it.  No other plan.  Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit fills us up, we will have the power to become his witnesses. In other words, we will shine, and that's the plan;  the only plan, no back-up plan b. There are people in your neighborhood who are living in darkness. Paul said in Acts in 17:26-27, that God has set the times and the boundaries of where we live. Why? In the hope that when people seek God, that when they grope for God in the darkness, they will find him.

And how do we let our light shine? By doing good deeds that reflect well on our Father in Heaven. Are you a do-gooder? 

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You are the light of the world. Isn't that amazing? Do you understand?  We're here to shine.  To be generous with our lives and do good deeds which shine the light on Jesus. You've heard this phrase before, but you may be the only Jesus that people ever see. What do they see when they see you? Think about the last few days, the last week, when people saw you, what did they see? How about in your home; or at church? What does your boss see at work? How about our neighbors, that one that's struggling with cancer, or the elderly wife caring for her husband with alzheimer's and her kids live out of state and sometimes she sits at night,  wondering if she can make it through one more day without help. 

What did they see in us?  Did we bring light to their darkness? I think Jesus' words are a call, a reminder that it's time to shine!

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All my life I have been attracted to the overflow, without walls principles and  stories in the Bible. One of my all time favorite prayers in the Bible is Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3 which ends with these words, "Now to God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all you ask for or can even imagine." That is so
without walls! Jesus lived a life without walls; a life where just a touch can heal a
heart; a life where forgiveness brings freedom and service brings joy; a life where tombs become wombs for second chances. 

But in so many ways, we live our lives within walls and end up disconnected from each other, from God and from life. Sometimes we build walls because it seems safe, but it's really just lonely. One of the ways we build walls is when we judge. That's what this one is all about! 

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"You are the salt of the earth." Those are Jesus' words. Think about this, when salt is working, you can't see it. Where are you being salt? Salt-work is annymous acts of kindness. It's backstage work that doesn't mind missing the applause of the crowds; It's working hard and speaking the truth..in love; It's befriending someone who doesn't deserve a friend. It's being real, even when you think no-one's  watching. Salt work is living proof of a loving God. Salt work is simply what happens when a transformed heart comes into contact with others. 

So where are you being the salt of the earth? Our world desperately needs more salt!

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We need more than bread to thrive. Jesus said that we need every word that comes from the mouth of God! We need more than food-stuff for our stomachs,  more than comfort-stuff, more than significance stuff; we even need more than  relational stuff in order to thrive. A live that thrives will involve a live that is  continually feeding on the words of God. And remember, eating God's words  involves more than listening and learning. Both listening and learning are  important, but they are incomplete until we lean in. Leaning in, is the place where we become do-ers of the word and not hearers only. It’s the place where our lives change by the power of the Spirit in partnership with the Word of God. 

In this episode, I'm challenging us to consider leaning in by asking God to take us out of the center of our lives, so that we can be a blessing to those around us. 

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We've been talking about the beatitudes as a pathway to God's blessings. The blessings of God found in the Kingdom of God are amazing, but they rarely come easy. They require a "don't quit grit" that says, no matter what I'm going for it. And it all starts with "Blessed are the poor in Spirit." Blessed are the desperate, the begging poor in spirit. If you are poor in spirit, desperately broken, barely hanging on to a thin rope of hope, blessed are you. If you don't quit, blessing is on the way. When Jesus came on the scene announcing that the Kingdom of Heaven was here, the people understood him to say, "It's a new day. I know life has been hard, oppression, poverty, crucifixions every day. But listen, don't quit; a new day is dawning!"

That's my hope and message in this episode. Don't quit, don't you dare quit!

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In the last episode, you listened to my message on worry. Well it was actually Jesus' message on trusting God so that we don't worry. But there is a six word challenge in Jesus' words on worry, and it's a challenge that we didn't uncover in the last episode. We’ll probably  hit these six words again in a future message, but they are so important, so before we go back to our review of chapter 5 and being the light of the world, I just want to give you this six word challenge that is so vital to a non-anxious, worry-free life; "Seek first the kingdom of God."

Seek first the Kingdom of God. Make that Kingdom your first thing and listen, there can only be one "first" thing!