When my daughters were little like 6, 5, 4 little, little kids, they used to love to go to this place. Called jungle Java. And it was this. Crazy a combination of a coffee shop for the, for the parents. But at the same time, this crazy maze of tubes and slides and ball pits. And. This giant jungle gym for kids basically. And they loved it. Oh, I loved it. Until. One time. I remember taking him there on the way, say, Hey, we're going to head over to jungle Jehovah. And I remember both of my older two girls and what not jungle Java. I was like, what are you talking about? You love that place. I remember them saying no way. We're done, man. A kid threw up in there. There's puke all over the slides. And apparently there's was a rumor floating around town or school or something, but there's throw up, there's puke all over jungle, Java, stay away. And so. I don't know that we went after that. But I remember the story and it got me thinking. How do people see. Us and by us, I mean, Christians, Jesus followers, church people, whatever label you want to put on it. If you're a follower of Jesus, how, how do people who. Um, maybe are, are not that. How did they see us? How did they perceive us? I would venture to say. I don't even think it's a venture it's it's obvious. I don't think. I think most people would disagree, but I think it's not great. You know, I think oftentimes if you look at. Social media. You look at TV. You look at churches, you listened to a, maybe a different podcast. You listen to different sermons. You attend a church in your city. If you're around it enough, you, you definitely get the sense that Christians Christ followers, church, people are angry. They're defensive. Outraged combative. Irate. Guarded. Touchy vengeful. All the things that I would add up to saying, Hey, I don't know, very similar to jungle Java heck now, Iowa. Nothing to do with that. Even if I was interested in the slides, I'm not going in there because there's puke all over the place. I think it's similar when it comes to God's kingdom. I think inside all of us were, were drawn to the beautiful, wonderful. Stories of God's kingdom. About about how Jesus restores and forgives. We're drawn to that. It's in our soul, but there's something about the people on his team. That repels us. You know, it's like, I I'm interested in that, but I can't get on board with that. I can't, I can't be around that anger. I can't be around that outrage. It's just so loud and so, oh. This is what I think is that. People know about God. From us and by us, I mean, his followers. People. You know, it's obvious to say, but let's just say it. Jesus. Isn't walking around. Today. He came, he did his work. He's not here anymore, but he's entrusted us with this message of love and of restoration. And of his kingdom. So people know, literally they know they will learn, discover, no, see, get a taste of who God is and what he cares about from us, his followers and the way we treat people. So let's just do some simple logic. I mean just simple math, right? Like. We just. Uh, at least my opinion, maybe you disagree, but my opinion is, like I said, most people view Christians, especially today. I think over the last five, 10 years. Uh, as angry. And defensive and outraged and combative and irate, all the things, all the things in that list. And so if we just make the simple connection, that's how people think about God. That's how people think Jesus was. But this is the crazy thing. It couldn't be farther from the truth. Jesus is none of those things. None of those things. And if you even read scripts for just a little bit, the stories of Jesus's life and his time, his miracles, his ministry, if you read it just a little bit, He's nothing like that. And the time he has a little hint of anger. The time he gets a little bit fired up. It's for the it's for the church, people who are being jackasses. You know, the people who are just given his story. Uh, his. Kingdom. Like this false narrative, any, he won't stand for it. He'd just simply won't stand for. I love the scripture. Jesus says this in John chapter 1335. He said, let me give you a new command. Love one another. New command. It makes me think like this isn't the way it's been done for forever. It's. It's a new thing that God's happy. So Jesus shows up and he said, Hey, you've, you've learned this about these rules. You've learned that people are on the inside and accepted and good. When they perform. When they've done well to you when they deserve it. He shows up and he says, let me give you a new command. Love one another in the same way I loved you. Which is lavish and abundant and extravagant. You will love one another. And then he says this, this is all he finishes this. Us loving people. Well, He said, this is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples or followers. When they see the love you have for each other. So people know about God from us. Jesus said, when you love, well, they're going to know. They're going to see that you belong to me, that your followers in me, why you were the way you love each other. And yet we have this combative nature of church, people just angry and mad and. Judgemental. I don't know, it doesn't feel a lot. Like what Jesus is describing here. If you read any amount of the new Testament where Jesus has. Teaching and sharing. You realize really quickly that he is fascinated and fixated on this thing that he calls the kingdom. He is talking about it all the time and he works it into almost every one of his stories and teachings the kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom is here. It's now it's breaking in it's happening. You're invited. The kingdom is like this. The kingdom is like that. The kingdom, the kingdom, the guys constantly talking about the kingdom. And I believe that so much. Of God's kingdom is about seen. And I believe as we start to lean in. To explore and to follow Jesus in his kingdom. He starts to change the way we see. I think that's one of the biggest things that he does. He changes. The way we see. The way we see people. The way we see our resources, our community. The way we see our city and our neighbors. Uh, the way we see our family and our priorities, he changes the way we see. I love this. Jesus says in Matthew 6 33 seek first his kingdom. And his righteousness. This is a scripture. I grew up hearing it since I was a little kid in church. Seek first, his kingdom and his righteousness. And to me, I always felt like seek his kingdom, which when I was a younger, I didn't even really know what that meant. Like. Am I supposed to look for a king? Is there like a palace I should keep an eye out for? I'm not really sure what the kingdom was when I was little. I didn't hear much teaching about God's kingdom. But then it said in his righteousness and that always just meant like, Hey, all the rule following seek first, his goodness, like you better follow the rules. Right. Just people. Follow the rules. They, they, they perform well. They avoid sin. They do the right thing. I mean, it's right there in the word righteousness, but here's the thing. If you dig a little bit deeper, You step out of the king James version, perhaps, and you go back a little bit farther to the original righteousness that were translated from the Greek word. Dikaios. Uh, I'm not a native Greek speaker, so I probably am not saying that correctly. The Kairos. But that word, the Kyle's is what was translated. Originally and to righteousness and English, but what it really means more than righteousness, at least from the way I grew up viewing righteousness is that it means justice. So listen again to this seek first, his kingdom and his justice. I love that again, when we lean into Jesus in this beautiful story of grace, the scandalous story of grace, he starts to change the way we see and we start to seek and see his kingdom and his justice. We start to seek after that and we become the people that he describes love one another in the same way I have loved you love one another. That's what starts to happen? It doesn't look anything like angry. It doesn't look like mad. It doesn't look like. Judgemental. It looks like love. It looks like kindness. It will. What does love look like then? Well, the scripture defines love as patient and kind love is forgiving. Love is gentle love does not push or shove or demand its own way. None of what I'm saying right now is these words are coming out of my mouth. Feel like 2020 for church people. They do all those things. They push, they shove, they demand their own way. They, they create this. Environment and the story that most people. Who would love Jesus would love the story of God's kingdom of restoration and redemption. Want nothing to do with this. And I don't blame him. Seek first, his kingdom and his justice. To me, I'm envisioned that when that word see, cause like hide and go seek as a kid. You know, like go out and look for it. You don't just sit on the porch. Everyone hides. And you just sit there and count, we'll know you call and you get out there and you start seeking. And this is the thing I have discovered in my own journey. As we start to seek and pay attention. We see that God's kingdom is all around us all the time. Every day. It's always there. It's, it's like shows up in some of the most unexpected ways. Some of the smallest little tidbits of life. When we start to view it to the lens of God's kingdom, we start to see that everything is sacred. Every detail adds up to what God is doing. The kingdom Springs up all over the place in unlikely places. From old tired remains. Damage chapter's overlooked stories. God is at work all the time. He does not stop. And this is the beautiful part. He invites us to join in. And he starts to like recruit us and teach us and change us by starting with how we see and how we show up. What we look for? To me. I'm convinced if you pay attention, if you ask God. Helped me to see your king to help me to see how you're working around me, help me to see how I can be a part of your justice. Help me to see how I can love people. Well, how I can be someone who shares my time and my resources. That I can show up in my city with my neighbors. I changed my view changed the way I see. I'm convinced that God starts to do it. You get these glimpses all the time. Again, I call these like Kairos moments. Kairos is a Greek word that is like this. Time within time, this moment that sticks with you. And when you start to pay attention, you get these moments and you have this. You have this. Sort of crossroads. Like you see God's kingdom, you see the school lamps, and then you're invited in to say, how do I respond to this? I'm convinced it's all around us. Every day. Oh, but I can hear it already. I mean, trust me. I am from a long lineage of church people. I grew up as a. Out church person. And so I know what comes next. When you say stuff like this, I know. It's about. Well, that word righteousness. Right. We get caught up on that. And then we get, we get this phrase. They have, well, if, if we just love people, As they are. How does that make disciples? Jesus tells us to make disciples go and make disciples. So, how are we do that? We don't teach them. What's right. And what's wrong if we don't show them how bad they're acting, how poor their performances. How do we show them the right way? If we don't show them how bad they are. We have to go and make disciples. I love this line by Bob Goff, author of a book called love. Does. It's short, it's sweet and it's simple. And he says this, no one gets discipled. They get loved. I love that. No one gets discipled. Or they get loved. I want to share a story with you guys, a clip, uh, an audio clip. It's a few minutes long. It's from a speaker and teacher, his name is Tony Campolo and he tells us beautiful story of like God's kingdom showing up in the most random place. Seeing the opportunity. Uh, and stepping into it, check this out.

I, uh, had to go on a speaking engagement to Honolulu. Hey, sometimes you get Chicago, sometimes you get Honolulu. You go to Honolulu, you wake up at three o'clock in the morning if you're from the east coast because of the time difference and I, I was hungry. I went looking for something to eat up a side street, I found a greasy spoon. I went in, there were no booths, just a row of stools in front of the counter. I sat down, there was nobody in the place. I, I didn't touch the menu. It was one of those plastic menus, you know, and grease had piled up on it. I knew that if I opened the thing, something extraterrestrial would have crawled out. This fat guy with a greasy apron, unshaved, cigar comes out, puts the cigar down and says, What do you want? I said, a cup of coffee and a donut. He poured the coffee, and then he did this. And he picked up the doughnut. I hate that. So I'm sitting there, 3. 30 in the morning, munching on my dirty doughnut. Went into this place, come about 10 or 11 prostitutes. And they sat on either side of me. And it was a small place. And I tried to disappear. The one next to me was especially boisterous, and she said to her friend, tomorrow's my birthday. I'm going to be, I'm going to be 39. And her friend said, so what do you want me to do? Sing happy birthday? So you're going to be 39. You want a cake? You want a party? First woman said, look, I don't want anything. I'm just telling you it's my birthday. Why do you have to hurt my feelings? And then she added, I've never had a birthday party in my whole life. I don't expect to have one now. That did it. I waited until they left. And then I called, uh, Harry over. I said, uh, Do they come in here every night? He said, yeah. I said, the one right next to me. He said, Agnes. I said, it's her birthday tomorrow, Harry. What do you say we decorate this place? And when she comes in tomorrow night, we have a little party for her. She's never had a party in her whole life. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. And said, Mr. That's beautiful. Beautiful. Jane, come out here. This guy wants to throw a birthday party for Agnes. It's her birthday tomorrow. She came out and she said, Oh, Mr. That's brilliant. Nobody ever does anything for Agnes, and she's one of the good people in this town. I know, I know what she does to make money, but she's a good person. I said, can I decorate the place? She said, to your heart's content. I said, I'm going to bring a big birthday cake. Harry said, oh no, the cake's my thing. Oh, geez. So I got there the next morning at about 2. 30. I had bought this crepe paper at the, at the, the Kmart. I strung it across the place. I had made a big sign, happy birthday Agnes. Put it on the mirror behind the counter. I had the place spruced. It was ready. Jan, who did the cooking, had gotten the word out on the street. By 3. 15, every single prostitute in Honolulu was squeezed into this diner. It was wall to wall prostitutes. And me! 3. 30 in the morning, the door opens. In comes Agnes and her friends. I've got everybody set, everybody ready. As they come to the door, we yell, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGNES! And start cheering like mad. I've never seen anybody so stunned in my life. Her knees buckled. They studied her. They got her down on a stool and we started singing Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to you. And they brought out the cake with the candles. That was it. She lost it and started to cry. Harry just stood there with the cake, with all the candles, said, Knock her off! Come on, Agnes, knock it off and blot the candles. Come on, blot the candles. She tried, but she couldn't do it, so he blew out the candles. He gave her the knife and said, now cut the cake. Come on now, cut the cake, Agnes, cut the cake. She sat for a long moment and then she turned to me and she said, Mister, I really don't want to cut the cake. Is it okay if I don't cut the cake? I said, it's your cake. It's your cake. You can do with it what you want. She said, I want to take it home. I want to show it to my mother. Is that okay? I said, sure. She stood up. I said, do you have to do it now? She said, I live two doors down. Let me take the cake to her. And, and I promise I'll bring it right back. I promise. She picked up the cake like it was the Holy Grail. And she pushed her way through the crowd and out the door. And as the door swung slowly shut, it was dead. You talk about an awkward silence. All of us were just standing there, stunned. I didn't know what to say, so I finally said, uh, What do you, what do you, what do you say we pray? It's weird looking back on it now. A sociologist leading a prayer meeting with a bunch of prostitutes in a diner at 3. 30 in the morning. It was the right thing to do. And I prayed that God would deliver her from what filthy men had done to her, probably starting when she was, she was too young to even know what was going on. That's how these things start, you know, some kid, 11, 12 years old gets messed over by some filthy slob and, and her self image is destroyed and she's ruined and we blame her when we ought to be blaming him. And I prayed that God would make her new because we're here to declare the good news. And no matter where you've been or what you've done, Jesus can make you new. When I finished the prayer, Harry leaned across the counter and said, Hey Campolo, you told us you were a sociologist, you're a preacher, what kind of church are you preaching? And in one of those moments, when you come up with just the right words, I said, I, I I, I preach in a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3. 30 in the morning. I'll never forget his response. Never. He said, No you don't! No you don't. He said, I would join a church like that. Wouldn't we all? Wouldn't we all love to belong to a church that threw birthday parties for whores at 3. 30 in the morning? I got news for you. I got news for you. That is the kind of church that Jesus came to create. I don't know where we got this other one that's half country club. But Jesus came to create a people that It would bring parties to those who have no parties, celebration into the lives of people who have nothing to celebrate. If all you've got to offer is a bowl of soup and some clothes, it's not enough. Jesus came and said, I have come that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be full. And we've got to do more than just give them bread and clothes. We've got to bring love and joy into their lives.

Oh, my gosh, I love that story, right. I mean, come on. I love the line. I would go to a church like that. Who wouldn't all right. Of course. That's what love looks like. That's what the kingdom is all about. Showing up in these beautiful, small overlooked places for the people who needed the most. Nobody gets discipled. They get loved. I love the scripture. It's from Zechariah, which is the book in the old Testament, Zechariah chapter eight, 12, and 13. I'm going to read from the message Bible because I love the way this is sort of phrased as powerful. And this is what it says. You've gotten a reputation. As a bad news people, you, people of Judah in Israel. But I'm coming to save you. And from now on you're the good news people and don't be afraid and keep a firm grip on what I'm doing. What a scripture that is. I mean, that was written. Thousands of years ago. So this fascination with church, people being angry and mad and defensive, it's gone on a long time and Jesus shows up. I'm showing you. I I'm giving you a new teaching, a new way. And let me read it one more time. You've gotten a reputation as a bad news people. Yes. Check accurate, confirmed. Bad news. You people of Judah and Israel, but I'm coming to save you from now on you're the good news people don't be afraid and keep a firm grip on what I'm doing. Don't be afraid of this. Don't be afraid that people go crazy, that people will run off that people won't be righteous. Don't be afraid that God's love isn't strong enough or big enough. It is. It's big enough. Covers us all. And I love the last line. Keep a firm grip on what I'm doing. Don't lose sight of this. Don't let go of this. Don't go your own way. Stick with what I'm doing. Good news. Scandalous grace. Full forgiveness. Love joy justice, help peace harmony. These are the things Jesus cares about this. Is what the kingdom looks like. We as Christ followers are free to love people. In risky and profound ways. We're free to love people and risky. In profound ways. Because that's where the kingdom is. That's how it shows up. Where and how we show up matters the way in which we show up matters. And it doesn't have to be these grand things. It's just little things. Every day, everything is sacred. Everything is God showing up. If we lean into it. It can be small and slow. And steady. I love last couple of years, I've been getting really into craft cocktails. So like things like an old fashion or the last word or some of these old cocktails that are 50, 60, 80 hundreds of years old. I love. The craft of actually combining these ingredients and then just, you know, sipping them over ice or whatever, with friends, with good conversation. I love it. And so I I've gotten a little extreme. I've gotten a little. Not extreme. Oh, maybe a little, I love it, but I have my own mint plant because a lot of the garnish. Uh, our, a lot of the ingredients in some cocktails is it requires meant, especially some of the summary things. So I went and. You know, at first I'd just go to Kroger or whatever and buy a little mint packet. But man, I got, I need more. I need more, man. So I got my own mint plant on my back porch and I keep it watered every day. And keep my eye on that thing. But one thing I noticed just on. A few weeks ago, I went out there. I forgotten a day or two of a watering, and this thing looked like death itself. You never saw a mint plant looks so sad and so distressed. And so gone. I thought it was, I literally thought it was over. It was wilted and brown and tripled and, oh my gosh. Poor thing. But I just went in, I filled up my water thing and I came back and I watered it and I thought maybe who knows, I'll just throw some water on. Maybe there's a heartbeat left in there. Right. I came back just literally a few hours later. And I picked out this little mint plant. And this wilted nasty brown. Tired. Dead plant had sprung back to life. It was like full, the lease were out in bright and bold, and it was amazing this transformation and it was small. What I did this little tiny bit of water. How we show up where we show up small, slow and steady. You are free to love people. And risky and profound ways that don't look like traditional. Church or religion. Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 43. Chapter, I'm sorry. Matthew chapter five, verse 43. He says this you're familiar with the old written law. Love your friend. And it's unwritten companion. Hate your enemy. Yep. Yep. Everyone's for me, that's human nature. We're all familiar with that. Love the people that are nice to you. Hate the people who are nasty to you. Well, Jesus continues. He says I'm challenging that. I God, in the flesh, who's come down to earth to show humans how to live, to what, to care about how to thrive. He said, I'm challenging that I'm telling you to love. Who. Your enemies, I'm telling it a love, your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst, not your nastiness and your anger and your judgment and your wrath, your bitterness, your fear, your stress, your anxiety, your judgment. No. Let them bring out the best in you. Jesus says. He continues. He says, when someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for, then you are working out of your true selves. Your God created selves. This is what God does. He says he gives his best, the sun to warm. And the rain to nourish to everyone regardless. The good and the bad, the nice and the nasty. And he wraps up with this. He says, if all you do. Is love the lovable. Do you expect bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect the metal? Any run of the mill center does that it's like we're called something more, something beyond ourselves, right? Something beyond this nature of tit for tat this, for that eye for an eye, you said that's old school, man. That's played out. We're done with that. There's a new way. I'm telling you something new. I'm doing something new. The kingdom is about something new. It's about love. It's about mercy. It's about compassion and empathy. Let them bring out the best, not the worst. Does that sound like your church? Does that sound like. Your church people. Bringing out the best. What I see so often is the worst of us, man. I'm tired of it. I don't want to be on that team anymore. I don't want the worst. I'm not rejecting Jesus. I want all of Jesus. I want more. Jesus. I can't cannot for Jesus. I'm rejecting the nastiness. I'm rejecting the religion, the rules, the legacy, the sort of old system that says you must conform. And if you don't, you're not on our team. I am so out. I am done. Done zoo. I think about this. Why as followers of Jesus, why do we so often have such a hard time with this? Jesus shows up, he says, I'm telling you a new way. Live out of your God created selves. Your true self. Let me show you how I do it and just go and do likewise, why do we have such a hard time loving people like this? Shall we not like this? I think maybe perhaps. Uh, I could just maybe speak for my own journey. Right. But maybe I think it stems from us thinking that God is mad or angry. At us that we've not performed well enough and that God generally. Is positioned towards us. His. His approach towards us as generally that he's, he's not pleased. He's pissed. You know, and, and we're always continually under performing. We're convinced. That we're not enough that he, there's no way he could possibly bleed be pleased with us that, that he's not delighted. And as he's not happy with, as he doesn't really like us yet, he had to do this whole thing with Jesus and. Send us on and. And all of this stuff he had to do that. We read a scripture yet. We believed that, but man, we made him do that. He's pissed about doing that. And now it's our turn, his pride a little bit reciprocate and give back. And we were never, we're never, we're never living up to it. So we have this sort of. Idea that God's posture towards us as angry that he's pissed off. And guess what? When you're living with a pissed off father, It's hard to love others because you're mostly just freaked out. You're mostly just nervous that you're not doing well enough to he's going to react in a way that's unpleasant or unexpected. And heck if you're trying to do some of this stuff. And you're a church person trying to do this. What about the people who aren't even trying. Forget that man that makes you even more mad. Right. I think that's why we have a hard time with this, but here's the good news. I just want to wrap up with this. Is that Jesus took it all friend. His last words before he died on the cross, is that. He said it is finished. The job I came to do, he literally says it. Is. Finished it's fulfilled. It's done. What'd he puts his hand to, he accomplishes. This great leap of faith that we are invited into is just that believing. That it's done that God. Likes us that God loves us, that God is pleased with you. That he does not hold your mistakes against you. That there's nothing. Nothing you can do to make him turn away from you. That takes a lot of faith. That's that's the story of faith. That's the journey of God's kingdom. And he had so often, I think we're so concerned about sin management that we miss the good news story. The last thing I want to share this quick story. My oldest daughter, Madison was headed on a trip to Florida a few months ago, and it was one of her first solo trips, right. Getting on the plane by herself, packing up her stuff, managing layovers, all the things that she has to do. And so. I remember the morning of her. We're going to drop her off at the airport and we're. Man, we're cutting it pretty close. I guess I'm getting a little nervous. We're still a home. And I would really like to be at the airport, dropping her off, and then she's taking longer and she's packing this bag and she's forgot this. And we have to go back and get this and she's working on her makeup and she has to do that. Like literally, it's getting down to the wire. We are freaking stressing out. She's so concerned with getting ready and packing and preparing that she barely, by the skin of her teeth made the flight down to Florida. She did. She made it. She was good. But it just sat with me. It's like sometimes it was so concerned about the sin management story that we knew missed the point. You mentioned packing up everything, having every suitcase. So jam packed and prepped. You are so prep, man. You were prep, prep, prepped. You're ready for this trip, but the plane left like three hours ago. Talk about adventures and missing the point. Don't miss the good news story. The story is good news for you. And it should be good news for everyone. We encounter the way we show up the way we see the way we move through our days. You do. The next right thing. That's all we're asked. That's all we're invited into. It's not that hard. It's not that hard. God helps us along the way. Do the next right thing again. And again, and again, if you mess up, you do it next time, the next right thing. How can you help? How can you show up? How can you love? How can you forgive? How can you see God's way? We are free to love people in risky and profound ways. Pay attention to what God is doing right around you. And then join in.