Paul's Passing Thoughts

This guy could have written chapter three of TTANC 2. I am having a transcript made of this and some things said will be cited in the conclusion. He is dead on in regard to the institutional church. However, his sanctification paradigm needs some adjustment. Christ doesn’t do it all in our sanctification. Right, I know, he makes that point, but in our day it needs to be emphasized.

Performance in sanctification DOES NOT lead to self-righteous “bullying.” Hello, our “performance” in sanctification, which has absolutely NOTHING to do with our justification, will be judged by Christ and there will be loss though we will still be saved “by fire.” Whatever that means, and I confess I am not sure at this point. The help of the Holy Spirit in sanctification is an incentive to do more, not an incentive to say we do nothing and Christ does it all. An inability to perform in sanctification, in and of ourselves, is the primary argument used by the spiritual tyrant for control.

You can’t dichotomize knowing and doing. On the one hand, you can’t argue that we shouldn’t believe we need spiritual control freaks to know, and then argue on the other hand that we can’t do. Or, perform. This splitting of activity in sanctification into two groups, doing and performance, and making one bad and the other good, smacks of the same ontological dualism used by the tyrants themselves to interpret reality any way they want to. If you don’t like the meaning of a word, make two synonyms antonyms; one of the material world, and the other of the spiritual. The speaker on this mp3 is way too nuanced on this point. It raises a red flag for me. Tyrants thrive on the inability of the individual, emphasizing such in sanctification can lead to one jumping out of the tyrant’s frying pan and into the fire.

NEVERTHELESS, what he states about the institutional church and the abuse of Hebrews 13:17 is a must listen. It reinforces my assertion: home fellowships and the New Testament model must replace what we have now.

Here is the link for listening and downloading:  http://www.thegodjourney.com/audio/2013/131108h.mp3

Right click on the screen and choose the download option if you want the file.

paul

TRANSCRIPT: 

For those looking to live outside the box of religious performance and inside the love of an awesome Father, this is the God Journey.

Well, for someone that wasn’t going to be traveling a lot this fall, I sure seem to be spending a lot of my time in airports, at least it feels that way, at least for the last four weeks. Hi. I’m Wayne Jacobsen. This is the God Journey, and I’m glad you found your way here.

Just got back from the Dallas Fort Worth area, spent some time over the weekend and thought I wanted to do a podcast about some of that experience because in many ways it dovetails with what I experienced in London. And the circumstances are very different and what people endured and suffered are a little bit different, but the realities of the kind of devastation that conformity-based environments provide for people is something I think we need to talk about perhaps at a wider level, because it really involves a lot of distorted use of Scripture, and the end result is that people are very, very much harmed. The thing in London was a bit legalistic to be sure. It was following God by meeting a certain set of standards and not hardly even letting Jesus in the room. The group in Dallas Fort Worth has been going on a whole lot longer than that, and they’ve got satellite bunches not just there but other places in the States. This has gone on for generations and really approached the, not even approached, it crossed the line of what it is to abuse people in God’s name. And I wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about that today.

In both places I was at, there’s a constant stream of questions that rise out of the same Scriptures, that there’s a threat, three or four of them, that people love to use to bash people into conformity. And when you do that and you create a conformity-based environment, the fruits of that become very, very harmful. It’s not that the Scriptures are untrue, because the Scriptures are true exactly for what they say and exactly what they mean. And what’s so amazing about the Scriptures is that there’s so few of them. People always quote the same things because the whole of the New Testament and the life of Jesus and how he treats people and how Paul and Peter and John treated the people of God in the early Church, you’re going to see a very different spirit than what’s quoted out of these verses as rules now to be followed by the people of God and used by those so insecure in God’s work and themselves that they’re going to try take by human power what they’re not persuasive of just in their own life and arena.

So what happens there? I’m not specifically now talking about either group, not the London group or the Fort Worth group. I’ve got dear friends in both now. The trouble with spending four, five days with some people is that you actually end up with relationships and you care about them. And the growing in that care is just such a wonderful thing. And I want to thank those of you who lent to me hospitality and opened your life so widely while I was there.

And yes, yes, the pain that this causes in people’s lives is intense. So I just want to take it on today. I’m going to spend the podcast, I’m going to read a whole lot of Scripture. We’re going to talk through some stuff. It may not be for everybody. But we’ve gotta get a different ethic in mind. If we use a verse like Hebrews 13:17 it’s used everywhere. “Obey your leaders, and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be no advantage to you.” And that verse just means to a certain kind of people, whatever we say goes. And I’ve even heard it said in fact the first church I worked in I heard this taught. Even if your leader is wrong, God rewards you for obeying them and God will deal with them instead of you. And this goes not just to leaders in church. That mentality goes to wives, to husbands, and submitting to their every wish and being diminishes a person. And what this ignores is the larger story in Scripture. Particularly in marriage, the two becoming one. It’s not about leaders and followers. I’m the husband. I get my way. You’re the woman. Shut up and go along. That’s not what makes marriage work. What makes marriage work is it there’s a partnership of two lives.

And when I think that Ephesians 5 Scripture means is not that I get to be right. It’s not that I get my way. It’s that I have a responsibility to lay my life down for my wife so that she can become all that Jesus has called her to be. That’s the analogy he’s looking for. He’s talking about Christ and the Church. And Christ doesn’t boss the Church around. Christ comes underneath us to love us and serve us and care for us. So reading the Scripture like obey your leaders or as it’s interpreted sometimes, obey those who are over you in the Lord, the very nature of those translations, if you’re going to take a Scripture, because we’re going to have [SOUNDS LIKE] most abused Scriptures in the New Testament. We’re going to talk some about that today. We’re also going to talk about some of the most ignored. Because you want to put right alongside this obey those who rule over you, you’ve gotta get to Mark 10:42 where Jesus says you know how the Gentiles lorded over? It’s not to be so with you. For the greatest among you will be the servant of all. Even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve. And that creates a whole different environment in which Scriptures like this about obeying your leaders, if it’s somebody coming to you saying, “I’m your boss in the Lord. Whatever I say goes. God will honor you for following me even if I’m wrong,” you need to run, run, run. That environment is as dangerous as it can be. Because it’s already someone transplanting the shepherd. Jesus said he would lead his sheep. They would recognize his voice. And the stranger, they will not follow. And the strangers are those who say, “Follow me” instead of following Jesus.

And this is how it gets misinterpreted. When it talks about those who give an account, it’s somehow like I’m accountable if I’m the leader for what you do. So you better do what I tell you because I’m accountable for you. And the sense of this verse is exactly the opposite of that. It’s not I’m accountable for what you do if I am in some way helping others on this journey grow. I’m accountable for God for the things I say and how I treat you. I’m accountable. And so what it’s saying is when you find people who are – and the word “leader” is a bad one because leaders is all about management. And management is all about conformity-based structures. That’s how a world works. That’s not how a kingdom works, not this kingdom. This kingdom works because people connect with Jesus and inside that relationship are transformed. So it’s not obedience that I need. It just means yield to those who are down the road from you. Those who are further bit in the Lord who know things, who live things, yield to them. If someone comes to me that’s down the road a bit and offers me some wisdom for my life, and I don’t see what they’re saying, in fact, I may even disagree with it, you know what I do? I don’t obey it. I don’t submit to it. I take it to Jesus. And I give it weight because I value their life.

Where these verses get all messed up when it talks about obey your leaders, we’re just merely talking about those who climb to the top of the institutional heap who may not have any idea who God is, how to walk with him, how to help other people do it, but they’re going to manage this institution, and they’re going to do with an old creation mindset. I have the right to rule. You have the responsibility to follow. Shut up and go along. I don’t believe Hebrews 13 is talking into that context at all. And when you look at the early church disciples, you look at Paul, even 1 Corinthians 9 and 10, when he’s asked about meat offered to idols, he says idols are nothing. Meat offered to idols is nothing. Therefore, it’s okay to eat. There’s the wisdom. There’s the truth of it. But then he goes on, if you’re not free to eat, then don’t eat. He’s not saying, “Trust me. Trust my insight. Trust what I’m saying over your own conscience.” He’s saying, “I want you to learn how to follow Jesus. And if I’m what I’m telling you doesn’t seem right, then keep following what’s in your heart until God shapes something there.” Not, “Do what I say no matter what.” And so people who use Hebrews 13 to demand unquestioned obedience proves by doing so that they have no idea who Jesus is. And I’m going to say it flat out right. Because people who are elders with a little E, and I mean that by elders in the world by the real life that they carry, they would never ask you to do that.

Now what confuses us no doubt is the environment in which we’ve pressed the church. The Church of Jesus Christ lives in Christ. We’ve put it into human institutions. Human institutions need conformity to function effectively and to work smoothly. And so it’s no doubt, if you’re in one of those, you’re going to run to all the Scriptures we’re going to talk about today and use them for your own power in conforming people to what you think is best for them. And the day you decide to do that, you become a very dangerous person in the body of Christ. No true elder in this family is ever going to ask for your unquestioned obedience. They’re going to share with you and be honest with you. And they’re going to do exactly what Paul talked about in 2 Corinthians 4. “We’re going to set forth the truth plainly, and then command ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” That’s not asking unquestioned obedience. That’s saying, “Here it is as best I see it. Now you and God and sort that out.” If it seems true, follow it. If it doesn’t seem true, don’t. But don’t just surrender to me and my “authority” because the authority that we have is not to command. The authority is to equip people inside the life of Jesus.

The other one that comes up a lot, Hebrews 10:25. We pick on Hebrews a lot. “Let’s not giving up meeting together or assembling ourselves together as is the habit of some. But let us encourage one another and all the more just see the day approaching.” Well, this is not the proof text to have your tail in a pew on Sunday morning for a mini concert, mini lecture. It’s not even about meeting. I think the sense of this is having your lives knit together. The assembling is about lives, not about meetings. It’s about having brothers and sisters to walk with on the journey. Because the uptake of it is that you encourage one another, not that you stay safe under someone’s authority. And that’s how we’ve always violated this kind of thing. The idea is you need an institution or a man to ride hurdle over you. Otherwise, here’s the deal, you’re going to get lost in air. Because people who try to follow Jesus get lost in air. The reality is no, people who try to follow Jesus don’t get lost in air. People who try to follow Jesus, follow Jesus. The people that end up in error are those who are trying to create a following for themselves using either of these two verses from Hebrews. What’s actually going on that the writers writing to in the book of Hebrews is a group of people under persecution. And they’re thinking, man, if that person’s being persecuted and his possessions are being taken away, if I hang too close to him, they’re going to think maybe we’re friends and maybe I’m part of the same thing, and the persecution is coming my away. And so the thinking maybe we’ll just all try to go it alone for a while until the heat is off. And the writer of Hebrew is saying, man, you need the encouragement more than the risk. So, yeah, maybe a bit risky but all the more are you going to need to be near and with and live inside each other. That’s not a conformity-based environment. That’s a love-based relationship. That’s friendship in which Jesus is the center of it.

Another verse that came up repeatedly is Matthew 16:24. Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” And that usually comes up at least in some of the groups I’ve been with, that comes up when a leader tells you to do something or we’re doing something as a group and it just seems off to you. And you share that with somebody and say, “Well, of course, it’s going to seem off to you. Unless we deny ourselves.” I mean, the most painful thing you can do is the godly thing. Denying yourself isn’t about I do the most painful thing I can. Denying myself is I’m learning to give up my agenda and embrace Jesus’, not I’m trying to give up my agenda to embrace yours, to embrace whatever person’s going to interpose yourself as a leader.

And then this from Romans 16, and I heard this lot and this one breaks my heart. I heard about marking and unmarking people. You’re marked as rebellious because of some problem in your life or you questioned authority or you’re seeing someone as in dating outside the officially sanctioned group that you can be with. And so we’re going to put a mark on you, and that means everybody has to regard you as if you’re dead. And hopefully, you’ll get so tired of that at some point you’re going to come back and do what we’re telling you to do. And then to hear the – oh, I got freaked out not only by the marking of people, but by the unmarked. You’re unmarked now. We’re taking the mark off of you. Let’s call that for what it is. It’s blatant arrogance and control of people, and there’s nothing that marks a cult more clearly than your need to manage people.

Paul’s basically saying in Romans 16, you know, there are people who cause divisions, and they put obstacles in your way. And when people do that, just give them a wide berth. Just know who they are, and don’t spend a lot of time with them. That’s very different than let’s mark someone and then this whole group of people is going to shame them back into the body of Christ. We’re going to make them feel, so run [SOUNDS LIKE]. And particularly if the group of the people is a lot of families in a relationship, then you got a situation where a husband has been marked so a wife has to ignore them. Or a daughter has been marked so brothers and sisters and moms and dads have to ignore them. And if they don’t ignore them, then they’ll get marked too. And this whole fear-based system which maybe someone back in the day thought this was a good idea. This is going to help people be more like Jesus. And the fact is it never does. It makes people fearful, and those who conform become part of the abuse. Those who don’t conform become abused and marginalized. And the pain of that over generations is a disaster.

Here’s what lies at the heart of it. If you take it as your responsibility to manage the behavior of others and you’re doing it in God’s name, there’s nothing you can stop at. The only restriction to that is what the government will not allow or what law suits might provoke you. Four hundred, five hundred years ago, what claims to be the Church of Jesus Christ in the world is burning people at the stake. It’s torturing people who won’t follow the rules because we’re the leaders, and we have God’s insight, and we’ve set a bunch of rules. Now if you don’t follow these rules, and even a parent knows that. If you’re going to make kids conform to rules, then where do you stop? Whenever they rebel, act out, what tactic is too much not to demand the conformity? Because we live in a nation, at least here in America where we have certain rights for freedom of expression of religion. Someone asked me this weekend, “Is there no way that government can stop cults like this from happening?” And the answer is no, not here, not in America. Now they can keep them from stoning people and flogging folks and doing things like that. And there have been libel lawsuits against groups that have marked people and shunned them and shamed them and told lies or even the truth about their failures. There have been lawsuits about that. That will restrict it some. But our government doesn’t intrude because we don’t want our government deciding what’s good religion and what isn’t. And there’s a bit of wisdom in that. What it does leave is the potential for this kind of environment in which people get decidedly abused. And the idea of of shunning and marking and – if I have a responsibility to conform your activity – and yes, I first want to just encourage you and help you go along. But if you don’t go along, then I’ve gotta think of something so, you know, we can use Romans 16 to go, “Let’s mark people. And then we’ll use 1 Corinthians 5 to say we’ll shame them and not talk to them and have nothing to do with them. And then they’ll do the right thing. My goodness. Then they’ll do it.”

And even if you’ve got the right thing in mind, even if they end up doing the right thing, when it’s done out of fear and shame, it is nothing more than manipulation. The Bill Gothard study in basic youth conflicts used to decide, I don’t know if they still do, they define leadership is the ability to get others to do what they wouldn’t otherwise freely choose to do. And that is a demonic idea. I must say it straight out. When it’s your task to get people to do what they wouldn’t otherwise freely choose to do, you’re not operating in the Kingdom of Light. The idea of the Kingdom of Light is this: We set forth the truth plainly. We let people make the decisions they we want to make, and we keep loving them even if we’re going to treat people like tax collectors and sinners, what does that mean? We still befriend them. Jesus hung out with such folks. He loved up on such folks, hoping that love would win what fear and obedience never does. And that’s the encouragement of these Scriptures. In a relational environment of people growing to know Jesus together and loving each other, they’re very simple. Yes, yield to those that are ahead of you in the Lord, and there’s that of not giving up connecting our hearts together because that’s a powerful thing. And there is a place that yeah, take note of those. That’s a divisive heart. I’m not going to give that a lot of weight in my life. Notice what that is. That’s not people who threaten. The institutional environment we want to provide for others. That’s not what that means. And those Scriptures get ignored or misapplied and the people who suffer tremendously are devastated.

If you’re in a conformity-based environment that uses guilt, shame, and fear as tools for the work of the gospel, you can understand it’s not a gospel at all. 1 Corinthians 5, the man who’s living in sin that says I have nothing to do with him, even turn him over to Satan, I have no idea what that means. Honestly, we can look at that passage, if you’re going to create the environment that yeah, you’ve got someone dating outside your little tight-knit group so therefore you have the right to shame them and bother them, or you’re going to make the women wear a certain kind of clothing, and if that’s too short or we consider not modest enough, man, do you see how twisted that is? Somewhere back in the day, it might have looked like a good idea because maybe with the lightest of pressure people made better choices. But again where’s the line you stop at? You give a little, they don’t respond. You got to heighten it, they don’t respond. You gotta heighten it. And pretty soon you’re into a full-on abuse because you took the idea that you’re accountable to me, and I’ve gotta get you to do what’s right. And I do that for God. I manipulate you, twist you, shame you, guilt you, scare you in the name of God. And people who grow up in those environments, I’m telling you, it’s incredibly hurtful. It’s incredibly damaging. And we gotta be careful that that kind of thing does not take over the life of the Body of Christ.

This is, again, I keep referring to a book you can’t read yet, but Finding Church talks about the old creation in which we always interpreted Church humanistically. And the new creation which exists outside the framework of human conformity and leadership as we know it. And if you can take your model of leadership and conformity right out of church and put it into a business model or club or some government, you know what? You haven’t yet figured out how the Kingdom of God works where Jesus is the good shepherd of all his sheep, and we’re alongside each other. And yeah, there may be relationships in which I have to say to people, you know, I gotta tell you, what you’re doing is damaging, and it’s wrong, and it’s hurtful. I still love you. I want to hang out with you. I hope someday you find freedom from that sin. And in that, I can still love you. I can even have dinner with you. But there’s no pretense that by doing so, I’m validating your life outside of God. You’ve created God in your own image and you think something’s okay that’s not okay. I can have that conversation with you if I have the relationship. And having that, I can still love you. I may not invite you over for fellowship, but I may invite you over just for friendship and seeing what else God might do to help move you to a better place. But these things are so incredibly rare. Paul talks about it once in the New Testament. I’ve once in my life actually felt called by God to release someone to the power of the enemy, again, for their repentance. I didn’t tell them that. I didn’t tell other people that. I didn’t make that up, that point about shaming or shunning because I don’t believe shaming or shunning does anything to bring people into health and wholeness. In fact, the damage as great it is on the person shunned, the damaged may be greater on those doing the shunning.

Now people may quote the Scriptures and go nuts about this, and these are the ones that everybody uses to say, “We’re the leaders of this place, and you have to go along.” And I would just say to you, you gotta respect that if you’re there. And if you don’t respect it, you’ve gotta get out of there. Don’t count out – particularly risking family relationships, all kinds of – move on. Find out that God’s bigger than some of that stuff, and don’t fall victim in the name of trying to preserve some relationships you value because that’s the candy, isn’t it. It’s either a good worship service or good friendships. That’s the bait we use to get people in the trap. And then we spring the trap. And then if you leave and walk away, you’ll lose this benefit. Well, it’s worth risking the loss. I’m telling you, God’s big enough to carry you to bring other relationships into your life.

But here’s the Scriptures we ignore, Scriptures like Ephesians 4. He’s given some to the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to prepare God’s people, to equip them for the works of service so the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and then the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attending to the whole measure of the fullness. So whatever these gifts are, prophet, and I believe in all these gifts, I see them function in the world. They’re beautiful as people live in their gifting and help others. When those gifts become managers of an institution, they’re all corrupted. Because this is just to help people know God and live with him. And you only do that till the body of Christ is built up. And the body of Christ, see, if it’s my institution, then I can do anything to help that happen. If it’s any kind of human-generated organization, then we can drive that forever and be managers of that. And people actually pastors of churches which would be formed to the New Testament instead of actually being a pastor among the flock, helping people learn to live and follow Jesus. And that’s expressly what Ephesians 4 talks about. Until we become like him and find this unity in Christ, it’s about triggering people into a transformative relationship. It’s not about being the substitute for that. So follow me instead of following Christ.

Colossians 2:16, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival or a Sabbath Day. These are a shadow of things that were to come. The reality however has already come in Christ.” So such a person who delights in false humility and worship of angels and all that stuff, here is what the writer of Colossians says, “…has lost connection with the head from whom the whole body supported and held together by which God causes it to grow.” What part of do not let anyone judge you isn’t clear? It’s not don’t let anyone judge you, well, except the pastor of course or except the council of elders, or except the, except the… Paul’s adamant. Jesus is the head of this church because he’s head of every life in it. And people who don’t trust him to do that shouldn’t be managing elements of things they call the Body of Christ. They said sit down and shut up. Because God hasn’t made us each other’s judge, let no man tell you what to do. By doing so, the whole thing gets complicated and difficult. And the very people who quote the Scriptures thinking there are exceptions to it are exactly why these Scriptures were written. Don’t let anybody judge you. When people are manipulating you, people are trying to press you into conformity, they’ve proved by doing so they’ve lost connection with the head because it’s the head’s job. It’s his responsibility to gather us, connect us, incite us. And when we put a human institution or a human leader in the place of Jesus, it becomes incredibly destructive.

Mark 6 and 7 says Isaiah was right when he proclaimed about you hypocrites, religious leaders of their day. “As it is written, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teachings are but rules taught by men.” Wow, I love that. And then he goes on to talk about how it’s not what comes into a man that defiles him; it’s what goes out of a man. This is what separates the Kingdom of God from Taliban activities. The Taliban and honestly, most of Christendom through the years get to decide, you know what? We’re just weak, stupid humans, and where have the right incentive around us, we’ll just be tempted to fail. So the goal of good Christianity is to mitigate temptation. We don’t put women in the beaky bra outfits [SOUNDS LIKE] some do in the Middle East. But there are some strains where women can only wear long dresses, only have long hair, can’t wear jewelry, can’t do anything. Why? Because we’ll be tempted. Modesty becomes the code word by which we enforce rules on half of the body of Christ to dress in a way that makes them freakish in the culture. Why? Because we’re afraid men will be tempted by that. Really?

Jesus says it’s not what goes into a man that defiles him; it’s what comes out of a man. He was declaring all foods clean. It was all part of it. But the application is bigger than foods? Yeah, you’re stupid, well, let me be careful. Yeah, you’re not really bright if you’re going to put a lot of temptation around your life. You’re going to indulge in sexually stimulating kinds of activities and you’re going to have trouble with sexual lust and temptation. Yeah, I get that. But what Jesus wants you to know is the lust comes from within. It doesn’t come from without. The healing therefore is inside, not outside. I don’t have to make people around me live differently to be free. I get to live free in him because of how he changes me and accesses my life. But Jesus goes on at same Mark passage. “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside of man can make him unclean by going into him. Rather it’s what comes out that makes him unclean.” It’s the temptations of the heart. It’s the darkness of my own twistedness. That’s where the bondage is. That’s not condemning. That’s a great truth. If it’s coming from within me, then my healing can depend on Christ, not on you. It’s not what you bring. It’s not that I live in a sexually brazen culture. It’s not that I have people around me who dress provocatively. It’s not that. It’s in Wayne. And if it’s in Wayne, then Jesus and I get to manage it together. And the transformation comes from within.

So if you’re in an environment where people are trying to manipulate those kinds of things, you’re in a dangerous place. And I’m tired of just trying to be generous to those kinds of environments because, you know, and everybody who’s been in the States, it’s always a mixed bag. Yes, horrible even evil exploitation of people by those in leadership, and yet underneath that mixed bag is there’s lots of good relationships that goes on when the leaders aren’t around. There’s lots of wonderful things that get taught from Scripture that are true, and so people end up in this, well, it’s not all bad. And then it may not be. But the question is how much cyanide does it take to be in the punch before the punch is going to kill you? Becomes dangerous, and it doesn’t take much. I think we need to, quite honestly, just say conformity-based environments where people – and I say that just blank it [SOUNDS LIKE]. The Church of Jesus Christ is not a conformity-based environment, which is why no institution can ever reflect the transcendence of the Church. Institutions are always about conformity. It’s always about believing the same thing, thinking the same thing, observing the same rituals, doing the same commitments. It’s always that. And when something begins to die, commitment is the first word that gets invoked. When it ceases to be compelling, enjoying, when it ceases to be fulfilling, then you gotta pull out the big C word. You need to be committed. You have an obligation. And when that happens, you know the group has already died. And it might be a good idea to look elsewhere for what else God calls you to.

And not every group is totally conformity-based. I get that. But when you find one that is, when you find leaders who presume to know better than you can know what Jesus is doing in your life, that’s when you gotta be careful. That’s when you really gotta step away. That’s what Scriptures meaning, Romans 16, take note and walk away. When people live that way, you’re going to get hurt. Folks around you are going to get hurt. And the problem is you’re going to do it thinking you’re doing God a favor, thinking that, yeah, this isn’t the best way to – but it is so important that they get it right that I have the right to bully them, that I have the right to shame them, that I have the right to tell others to shame them too. And what many know was the Church of Jesus Christ has just become an environment in which people are bullied. And if you’re being bullied, run, run, run. You don’t take a lot of people with you. You don’t have to gossip about it. You don’t have to do anything. Just say, “You know what? I’m done being in that environment.”

Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” How much clearer could Paul be? Any yoke of slavery. We weren’t called to fit into other people’s expectations of us. We’re not even called to fit into God’s expectations of us. What we’re invited to do is to know him and to grow in a loving relationship with him. And what God knows is this. To love him is to want to be like him. But we can’t be like him in our own strength or our own power. So it’s the relationship that begins to shape us internally. The inside of the cup gets clean. And yes, people who follow Jesus will demonstrate that transformed life outside. It might take months, years, decades for it to reflect. And that’s what James is getting at when he says, “You claim to have faith but you don’t live differently?” You’ve gotta really take a look at your faith. He’s not saying work harder. That’s not the whole faith works thing. It’s just saying real faith manifests itself in the way we live. So if real faith isn’t being manifested in the way I live, then I need to go back and find out how real my faith is. And that behooves us all. But let’s give a sense that that takes time. You can’t just learn something today and I’ll implement it tomorrow, and now I’m ready for something else. Because we don’t change well by just conforming our behavior. You can do that. You can do that temporarily. But even when you succeed, you become an obnoxious bully.

But when God transforms you, and you know just by hanging with him, loving him, knowing him, things move in my life, and I’m much more aware of people, more patient, more tender, more compassionate, more kind, now you know you’re on a journey. And that journey will be transformative. And it won’t be out of Wayne working hard. So at the end of it, I end up where Paul does. I’ve got nothing to boast about. Nothing. Every good thing in my life has been done by God. Every good thing. It’s not that I haven’t gone along with him and I haven’t been far a bit with him, ’cause I have. But at the end of the day, whatever I added to this is nothing compared to what God has moved in my life to make me think differently, react differently, respond differently in the world in which I live. Conformity-based environments will not get you there. What will our people who encourage you to love him and let him love you to know him, to transact with him, the broken places of your life so that he can shape and change you. Now the relationship itself will do that. I don’t think God exists in the world to be a fixer. I think God just exists in the world to love. For where you are loved, well, he’ll get to fix some things. Where you don’t love well, you’re going to get lost in all the things that the world does to twist this up, and then as we’ve talked about all day today, how religion twists you up even more.

I love that people are finding freedom from these kinds of environments. I love that people who are smack-dab in the middle of them could hear something in their heart bigger than what was going on around them, bigger than what the leaders were telling them, bigger than the conformity they thought they need to do for other people and they could actually take a breath, see what’s next, and find a way to live in the fullness of God’s life. I love that. I’m in London, I’m in Texas in spite of everything they learned wrong, in spite of the fact that they may not have the degrees that others who lorded over them might have had or training that they might have held over their heads could say in their hearts something is not right. Something is unhealthy here. And then took the courage to stand up and say, “I can’t be part of this anymore.” Especially the first few who do it when nobody around them supports them and everyone’s saying, “Come on. We’re going to miss you. We need you to come back. We need you. We need you. We need you.” And in spite of all the encouragement and all the friendships take the liberty to say, “I can’t. There’s something in my heart more real than that.” I love that all over the world today. I think it’s two things. I think God is freshly waking up people, which is fun. I think the other thing is our religious institutions have increasingly moved toward conformity and obligation as a way to transact business. And the greater that gets, the more that crosses that new creation heart in us, the more something, “No!” You might be able to talk yourself out of it for just little stuff, subtle things, the way it’s being done, but the more overt it becomes, now you just can’t ignore it anymore.

And people all over the world are waking up to that reality. And when they wake up to that reality, they get to go on a better journey. God gets to shape and change them in the most incredible ways. And out of that life happens. People change. They learn to be loved. They let God’s sort out all the pain and disappointment. And sometimes that takes years, people. It just does. As long as you got wrapped up in religion and the way it might have damaged something in you and something may have died in your heart through that process, let God awaken it. Let it take time. Just go to enjoy him. And when you recognize those dead spots, yield to him. Give it to him, and say, “God, here it is. I want you to deal with this.” If God gives you someone to talk that through with who will love you and understand you, then that’s the Hebrews 13 Scripture, people who not are over you or bossing you around but people who are down the road a bit who can turn around and say, “Let me help you walk through that.” The goal of which is not that you become dependent on them. The goal of which will be you get to become freer in Christ and live in him. Trust what God’s putting in your heart. Trust that this Jesus of Scripture is alive in you. He’s inviting you into something more real and more transformative. And when he does follow, no matter where it takes you, no matter the cost. We’re going to have a podcast next week from someone that paid an incredible price to walk this way. And it’s been some of the external things in their lives, and yet they end up in such a spacious place spiritually. They say along with everyone else who has gone down this road, “I have no regrets.” How many of us think about it in those first year or two when it seems all pain and no joy. But when you finally get past all that, you finally find out that everything Jesus said in Scripture was true, and the thing that resonates most in your heart is true, and if you keep following him, you will find it. Then watch out. Then the Church of Jesus Christ will be known not as a people who bully others, but boy, how do they love and lay down their lives for other people.

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