I want to talk about some things I've learned. Outside of religion. About God. Which might sound a little counterintuitive if you've been around church or religion for a long time, but. I'm convinced Jesus. Didn't come to start another religion. He came to set us free from religion. So today just want to share three sections. Um, of sort of things I've been learning over the last, maybe years in my journey, uh, faith, and I don't know, maybe it will resonate with you. First one is this. Who Jesus actually is. So I'm learning more and discovering more about this. And the more, the, the really beautiful part is the more I learn and discover about who Jesus really is, is the more I fall in love with Jesus, because he's amazing. Like if you knew this guy, if you really am convinced, if you really knew. Jesus. You love Jesus. You'd like this guy, I just guarantee you. There's a reason why people follow them by crowds were always around and wise disciples left. You. You know, their, their lives, their jobs, and followed him. To be around him. Um, and one of the things I, I grew up learning in church was that God is big, you know, and God is powerful. God has distant and other. And all that is true. Like God is all of those things. Um, but other and distant and unknown as sort of this thing that you can't really touch is sort of this intangible idea or concept of God. The thing I love about Jesus, when we read the stories, the things he cared about, the things he said, the people, he spent time with the places he went. You start to get a sense, a real, tangible sense of like who God is and what he cares about. And I love that. I always had the sense of growing up in church that you can't really know God, that way you can't know God in the way that you know, your family or your friends. Right. He was very much void of personality per se, but if you open up scripture and you start to read. The stories of Jesus, you realize there's personality all over the place. He is filled with compassion. Right. He's filled with justice and he's bold and he's honest, he's kind, he's clever. He's alive. He's irreverent. All the things that sort of, we don't ascribe to Jesus. The human part of him was like alive and. Beautiful and wonderful and captivating. And this is the other thing is like, sometimes we think like, you know, there's the Jesus that we read about that is, it seems pretty cool. I mean, he forgave people. He was nice. He did cool stuff. But then there's God, the father who's sort of, you know, Other distant, wholly a little bit angry, a little bit mad, hard to please. Uh, then we have this sort of disconnect between the two. And one of the things I've been discovering is scripture really teaches us. Clearly. Jesus says this himself, that. Jesus is the perfect representation of God. The father. They're not different. They're not other, they're not separate. In the sense of like having different agendas or personalities. Jesus says himself, if you've seen me, you've seen God, the father, he is the defining word on who God is and the things God cares about. It's all summed up. It's all points to Jesus. Jesus came to reveal God. And he chose the former of humanity to do so any put on skin and he moved into the neighborhood and he did it with personality and he did it. On purpose. And I love that. He was clever Connie alive. Free, funny. Impatient, sometimes angry with religion fierce. Defender for those who needed it playful all of these things that he is. Are part of, uh, part of the good parts of him that I feel like often gets stripped out. In church and religion. And, uh, I just encourage you to lean into that. Read the stories of Jesus. Look for the little notes of his personality. A couple of good resources for this. That I think might be helpful if you've seen, uh, or if you, if you haven't seen or have then, you know, but the chosen, it's a show. I think there's, you know, four or five seasons now. Um, but it's this really beautiful picture of like the personality of Jesus you get to see like in real life acted out. Um, how people were drawn to him and how he sort of acted and how he moved. And I, it was, it's just, it's just really powerful. So that's a great one. And then there's another one. Um, That I would recommend. It's a book called the beautiful outlaw or beautiful outlaw by John Eldridge. And basically it's about the, the, the crazy, amazing personality of God that shows up in Jesus. And when we start to realize that Jesus is the perfect representation of God, it starts to shape how we. How we see who God is and how he sees us and how he cares about us, how he works with us, how he moves with us, teaches us, shows us, leads us, forgives us. It's this really beautiful sort of full picture that I think often gets stripped out. Um, and then the last thing I would, I would just encourage is like, There's a version of the Bible called the message Bible. And it's translated by a pastor who passed away a few years ago, but his name was Eugene Peterson and he basically wrote the Bible, uh, in street language, the way it was written and the way it was communicated when it was originally recorded. The words that people would say in a normal sense, not hyped up, not religion eyes, not king James, not. Not old English, just the way like normal street people would talk the way humans actually speak. And so to me, I love the message Bible, because it's a great companion to kind of read scriptures. Sometimes you get a little familiar with. But you can lean in and you can say, oh, that's a fresh perspective. It's basically the gist of it is always the same. Right. Same truth, but it's like the wording's a little bit different. So kind of Jostle's your brain a little bit to think. Wow. I've never really heard it. Put that way. And that's been a really. Great tool for me to kind of get a glimpse again, of who Jesus is. Other thing I want to share that I've been learning about. That I think is fascinating is the kingdom. So I grew up. And church, and I never really heard much about the kingdom of God until I started reading scripture for myself. You'd hear it in passing. It'd be in some scriptures. Jesus talks about, uh, once in a while I thought, right, but the kingdom, the kingdom, I don't know, just sort of this, again, intangible sort of idea of God's kingdom. Of course he's a king and he has a kingdom cause he's a king of everything and. I don't know, it's sort of this very abstract sense. But as you start to read the stories of Jesus in scripture, Man, the kingdom is everywhere. Jesus is always talking about this thing called the kingdom. He says, the kingdom is now. It is happening. It is here. The kingdom of God is like this. They can't even got us like this, the keynote we got, I was like this. Over and over and over, actually it's over 100 times that Jesus references this phrase, the kingdom of God. And so I started to lean into that. Like, this is crazy. Like if this is something that God Jesus is talking about all the time, then there's something really important here. And so one of the things I've discovered about the kingdom is like, It's been happening and it's been, it's been developing if you will, for a long time, there's been people all through scripture. If you look through the old Testament, If you look through all just the history of humanity, really, we've been waiting for this kingdom to break in. Scripture says that creation, groans that we ache for this to come. Like it's, it's like buried in our DNA. And so what is the kingdom? The kingdom is this God's big, beautiful story. It's like a giant reset. It's like a great unfolding of God's. Narrative. It's a new way to know. God, Jesus says a kingdom is breaking in and it is now, and this is about justice and it is about grace. And it is about goodness. It is about love. It's about mercy. It's about no more hate it's about no more pain, no more hurt. It's about joy and laughter. And this idea, this concept, this Hebrew concept of Shalom. Like it's only well with me when it's well with you. And I love that. And so Jesus said the kingdom is here, is breaking in. And he talks about all the time. In fact, there's this really awesome scripture. Uh, that basically Jesus drops the mic. He doesn't like us. Awesome mic drop. And I'm going to share with you. It's in Luke chapter four and Jesus says this. Uh, God's spirit is on me. He's chosen me to preach the message of the good news to the poor. He sent me to announce part into prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind. To set the burden and battered free to announce this is God's year to act. He rolled up the scroll, handed that back to the assistant and sat down. And this next part, I love how Luke describes this. When he's writing. He says every eye in the place was on him. Intent. And then he started in, Jesus says this. You've just heard scripture make history. It came true just now in this place. Bam. Mike drop. I love that. I love that. I love the boldness of it, but let's just revisit those first couple of lines again, because what Jesus says here is what the kingdom is. It's like what he's bringing it's what he's are sharing in. He's chosen me to preach the message of good news. The king. That was good news to the poor, to those who really desperately needed. Good news. Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners. What better news is there than pardon to prisoners. You're a prisoner. Pardon is about as good as news is that you can receive, right. And recovery of sight to the blind. To set the burden and battered free to announce this is God's year to act. Jesus is saying it is happening. It is now the kingdom was breaking it. And to me, the beautiful part as followers of Jesus were invited in. To join in his kingdom work. Just to be participants and bring in about the things he cares about. So things like justice, things like mercy things for things like sticking up for those who don't have a voice standing up for those in the margins who get overlooked. That's Jesus does that all day long. Like if you're ever looking for the next right thing that you can do as a Jesus follower. Find someone to stick up for, find someone to step in for and be an advocate for them. That's justice. That's what Jesus cares about. Like crazy and just being kind filling on someone's bucket up. Bringing good news, bringing joy and celebration and laughter. All those things. I think Jesus is saying the kingdom is here and is breaking in and we're invited to participate in. Uh, I love that. The last thing I want to share for this episode is just about love. And, and a lot of times, again, church love, religion. It all gets kind of. Spun together into this sort of thing that is this. Bland broad. Hi, hard to touch concept. Yeah. I love, of course, love, love, love. We've heard it all a million times. It's an every worship song. But to me, it's a really, really big deal. And I want to share the square foot story from scripture. It's from the old Testament. It's from the book of Jonah, Jonah, is this famous, uh, you know, he gets swallowed by the fish and then. Spit out and, and it's this whole kind of crazy miracle story, whether you believe that. I mean, can God send the fish to eat somebody? Absolutely. Like, that's not hard for him. So. Or maybe you don't, maybe you just say that's just an abstraction. Maybe that's just a metaphor for something, but either way, I don't even want to focus on that part. What I want to focus on is in chapter four, Jonah, he's been eaten by the fish because he's trying to run away. God said, go and preach to this country. And in this country that he's directed to is. His enemies. It's the people that Jonah hates. His whole people hate these people. They're at war with them. They hate them. They're the enemy basically. Right? They don't agree. They don't vote the same way. They're not the political in a non alignment. They don't have their policies. They. All the stuff that you can imagine, this is like the enemy. Uh, that you could see today. And so Jonah was furious. This is what it says in Jonah chapter four, verse one and three, it says Jonah was furious. He's furious at God. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, God. I knew it. When I was back home, I knew this was going to happen. And that's why I ran off. All right. And then I'm gonna read this next sentence. And this is so crazy. This sounds like church people. A lot of times. Why is he mad? Why didn't he lose his temper? Why is he furious? Why did he just yell at God? What did he know God was going to do? Well, this is what he says. I knew it. This is why I ran off. I knew you were sheer grace and mercy. Not easily angered rich and love and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans and punishment into a program of forgiveness. Joan is mad that God's so good. Church people mad that God has extended grace to those who they deem as unworthy to their enemies. Ironic hits a little close to home. Feels like it resonates even today. But I love this story because it points out the very loving kindness. Uh, the very nature of who God is. Right. I knew Jonah says, I knew I knew it. I knew you're going to do this. I knew you were sheer grace and mercy. And that's powerful to me. It's like, I have this picture of like church people or Christians or Christianity as a religion. If you can kind of picture what happens often is that we're invited to this amazing party and we have no business being there, but we get invited anyway with the invitation and we step into this party and we realize this is a freaking awesome. Man, the food is great. The beverages. It is good. The company's good. The music's good. It's feels good to be here. I feel welcome. I feel known you're invited to a party, but then what happens often is like, just like Jonah. You S you stand at the door and become the guard of the party. Nobody else is getting in that. That you don't agree with or that you don't approve of, or that you don't think has the merit or the credit or the score to enter. You got in for free, but man, you're going to guard that door. That's what religion does. And it's so. It's so disgusting to me. It's so disgusting. This is what I love about God and about Jesus is I think about God growing up. Like I said earlier, God has big and other he's deities, all powerful. He's everywhere at wants. He created everything, all that stuff is true and it matters. And it's real. And it's all inspiring. You look at the stars, it's all inspiring at night. Look at the stars. It's beautiful. It's all inspiring, but God's mercy. And his kindness and his love. That's what wins my heart over. That's what has won me, my heart to his cause and his kingdom and his grace and his mercy. Is that his kind, his mercy, he sheer grace and mercy, like Jonah said, Right. Romans chapter two, verse four says his mercy leads us to repentance. To me. That's the idea of love breaks. Bad. Church can't do it. Religion. Can't do it. Nothing sets you free. Nothing wins your heart over like the perfect, beautiful, amazing love of Jesus. And this is what I've learned is that we are called as followers of Jesus. To replicate that to turn and reflect that to others. We don't get to stand at the door and guard and the party. That's now we're invited to that's ridiculous. So basically the idea is that's like, As a Christ follower, as someone who follows Jesus, we don't have enemies. Literally like we should not get offended. It's not you versus them. It's not us versus them. There's no them. There's just us. We're supposed to love people. We are called to love people. I want to share a couple of scriptures with you. That are so powerful that I sometimes read to myself and I think. Our church people, our churches, our pastors, like is anyone reading this in scripture? It's there. It's talking about. Well, let me just read it first, John chapter four. These are both in first John chapter four, and it says this, my friends, let us continue to love each other. Since love comes from God. Yup. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. Yup. The person who refuses to love. Does it know the first thing about God, because God is love. So you can't know him. If you don't love. I wonder. I just wonder if people are reading this scripture, man. You're called the love people as a follower of Jesus. You're not called to be angry or to defend, to be mad, to guard the door, to point out people's flaws to condemn. Yeah, none of that. You're called to love people and scripture, the Bible that you, that you love so much is literally telling you as plain as day, if you don't love people, you don't know the first thing about who God is. Think about that for a second. If you don't love people. If you don't love people, you don't know who God is. The other verse I want to share is just a few verses later. It's the first 20, and it says this. If anyone boasts, I love God and goes right on hating his brother or sister thinking nothing. Of it. He is a liar. If you won't love the person, you can see, how can you love the God? He can't see the command we have from Christ is blunt. Loving God includes loving people. You got to love, both love. God love people. That's what it looks like to follow Jesus. I was looking on Instagram last week and I found this quote that someone posted and I love it. It says if God didn't send Jesus to condemn the world, I doubt he sent you. That's almost like another mic drop right there. Right. If God didn't send Jesus. To to condemn the world. I doubt he sent you, right? Scripture is clear. Jesus. Didn't come to condemn the world. John three 17. He came to save the world to rescue the world. So if you didn't send Jesus to point the finger and guard the door, I doubt he sent you. Or me. We're not here to judge. We're not here to condemn. We are here to redeem, to throw open the gates and announced that the kingdom is here and is happening and is open to all everyone's invited. We're supposed to love. Well, we are known by our love, not our anger, not what we're against. Not the things we hate or make us mad, not the fingers. We want to point the doors. We want a guard. And enough of that, there's a reason why people are drawn to that. It's not true. It's not real. Again, this points back to like the real Jesus. If we love people, well, we're reflecting the real Jesus and people will love that people are drawn to that. Last thing. I want to leave us one scripture. Again, this is Jesus speaking in Luke chapter six. I'm reading from the message Bible. He says this, I tell you, love your enemies by him. Help and give without expecting return. You'll never, I promise, regret it live out. This God created identity the way our father lives toward us. Generously and graciously even. When we're at our worst, our father is kind. You be kind. That's what we're called to. That's what the kingdom looks like. That's what followers of Jesus. Start to live into. That's how we start to express herself. I'm going to read that scripture one more time. And as I do just think of. If you're a church person, just think if this looks like you or your church or your religion, or your group where your small group, where your Bible study, just think. If this is reflecting who you are and the ideals you hold up and the things you care about. And if you're not a follower of Jesus, like find a group that does this, this is where Jesus is at. This is what it says again. Jesus speaking it. I quote. I tell you love. Your enemies. That sounds like your group. Does that sound like your church? Does that sound like your pastor? Love your enemies help and give without expecting a return. You'll never, I promise regret it. Jesus says, live out. This God created identity. The way our father lives toward us. And how has that generously and graciously. And I love this. He goes further. Even when we're at our worst. Our father is kind. You be kind. We should be known for our love, our kindness, our joy. Our inclusion. Our justice. Let's love. Well, Love breaks bad.