In the Upside-down Kingdom, self-care is critical to loving others Aka “Stop Being so Judgmental and Get Therapy”

Who are you when no one is watching? They say people are leaving the church in droves, but what are they sick of? Hypocrisy. People claiming they have sincere faith, but their lives do not reflect what they say they believe.. People showing off their good works…It’s like they live their faith like it is their instagram feed. But how they treat people when no one is watching. They act one way when people are watching. The people who really know what they believe are their kids. What does this person do, when no one is around? What are they really like?

My name is Jason Williams – I am the lead Pastor of Harvest Community Church in Selah, WA – just north of Yakima. In Matthew chapter 16 – Jesus has revealed as the Messiah to his disciples. It began with a question who do people say that I am? Several opinion were thrown out by the disciples and then Jesus made it very personal. He said, who do YOU say I am? This is the most important question of your lifetime. How you answer this question, determines not only how you will live but how you will spend eternity. Peter answered – You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus then revealed that he must suffer and die and Peter confronts Jesus and wants no part of this negative talk of suffering and dying. Jesus wants to talk of conquering and winning. Now it Jesus’ turn to confront Peter and he says get behind me Satan because it is clear Peter had agenda that was in opposition to Christ’s agenda and reeks of Satan.

Think about how you grew up for a minute, and as you’re thinking about how you grew up I’ll tell you a bit about me. I’ve brought it up before but growing up I didn’t like team sports, although I participated in them for a few years, but what really caught my attention was skateboarding. I loved skateboarding. It was free in the sense that it was void of being a group sport and when you start a sport though, you try to find guys you could imitate and be like and that gave you something to aim at and pursue so you could work at getting better at your craft. I remember one skateboarder in particular I really enjoyed had just become a new pro for only a couple years and bought a 2 bedroom 1 bath house in California and somewhere around 12 of his friends moved in and what they would do was skate all day and party all night and I remember seeing that as a kid and thinking ‘I know what I want to do with my life.’ I wanted to be this guy. The issue was though, I was 12 and my brain hadn’t fully formed, so as I got older I realized that was a horrible idea to aim at. There was this tension I felt though because I wanted this careless lifestyle I saw the skateboarders have but at home, there was still rules. My Mom made sure I did my chores, I ate the right food, I did my homework. There were laws at home. But I look back now as an adult, so grateful for the laws that my Mom had put in place in the home, because it lead me to succeed in life.

Delivered | Colossians 1:13-14 | Jeff Potts

Upside Down Kingdom: Only the Blind See | Matthew 5:21-37 | Matt Nickel – June 19, 2022