A Fundamental Key to Loving: We are a bunch of sinful, angry, ragamuffins. And God has put us all together. We live in a scary world. We live in a time where they don’t like us much. How do you like people who hate you? Especially when many of those people are even in the church? Steve says don’t be obedient and don’t be nice (he says those things don’t work). So what does he say we need?

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The Sweet Exchange: Embracing Christ’s Righteousness. Bishop Holcomb emphasizes the inadequacy of relying on personal achievements, heritage, or moral performance to justify one’s existence before God. He uses the example of Paul in Philippians 3, who considered his own credentials and accomplishments as loss compared to the righteousness found in Christ. He encourages believers to look to Christ rather than themselves for righteousness, emphasizing that faith is about trusting Jesus to save and provide rest and healing to the weary and burdened.

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Pt. 4 – Banished Craziness. Jesus said the world hated me and they will hate you too. We live in a fallen world. Sometimes we forget that. But, more important than that, we need to repent. Not just repent of our sins, but repent of cliche. So much of our faith is built on cliche and as a result we keep God at arms length. Life is hard and we must bring it to God in all it’s messiness. That is the true freedom. And, cheer up! Jesus is coming back.

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Pt. 3 – Managed Craziness. What do we do now? Should we hide from the world? Should we be in their face? Should we debate them? How in the world are we to react to the evil and craziness that is in the world?

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Pt. 2 – Controlled Craziness. The world is full of craziness. But, what we need to realize is that we are one of the crazy ones. We have this wrong headed idea that we are one of the good ones. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are all sinners, saved by grace. The best witness we can give in a world that is evil is our own confession. You say “What?” US, confess? Yes. Martin Luther said we are great sinners and we have a great savior. So, what does that mean and how do we do it? Where is God in all of this?

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Pt. 1 – Expected Craziness. In our culture, it feels like the asylum is being run by the patients. Things being said that just make no sense. And no one to say, “That’s crazy, that’s just wrong.” But it is not a new problem. It’s been around for ages. When you look at our culture it’s hard to decide if what I don’t like is really bad, or if it’s just because I’m just set in my ways. But, there IS evil in our world, and there is craziness. Where does it come from and what do we do?

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Have you ever thought about what we believe? I mean, what we believe can be really weird. We belive that God entered time and space, what hungry, he blew his nose like we do. We belive that he was hungry, tired, lonely and even afraid. We believe he died. And after he died, he rose from the dead. Even more, he is coming back for us? Who made this stuff up? If you don’t have something in your faith that you can’t explian, then maybe you’re worshipping an idol.

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The Gift of Assurance. Life is full of difficulties. People don’t like us. The Christian life is more than just theology. It is being loved by Jesus. It’s remembering He is the good shepherd. It’s knowing He is looking after us and will protect us. He died for us to bring us into His fold. It’s learning to lean on Him and know that you are safe. You can rest in Him.

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The Gift of Laughter. Religion will make you weird. We all have our demons, our issues, guilt, pain. But we also have grace. The love and forgiveness of Jesus. For those of us who have experienced God’s grace, we also experience the laughter of the redeemed. Where Jesus is there is also laughter. Steve says “Laughter is the flag that flies over Joy!”

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The Gift of Tears. You know what we miss sometimes in the Christian faith? We miss the tears. We miss the pathos. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Lament, tears, is everywhere in the Bible. But, there is also the laughter. Both are gifts from God.

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