Welcome to our Together on Mission Podcast, we need to be with and like Jesus as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, the scripture, prayer and meditation, and then continue that conversation within the earlier day. Your host is Travis Pointe, the pastor at the Inlet of the Church in Grand California. Good morning everyone and welcome to the Daily Together on Mission Podcast. The title of the podcast this morning is celebrate, good times come on.
Celebrate, good times come on. So the question is how are you celebrating? Like really, how are you celebrating when it is time to celebrate? How are you at?
Let loose, go in for it, celebrating. And if I can just turn that question around, if I was to ask those that do life closest with you, what would they say if I asked that question to them about you? They describe you as someone who knows how to celebrate, go for it. Let loose, they describe you as someone who's fun and is able to enter into levity and are you someone that doesn't take yourself too seriously?
Are you the kind of person that welcomes other people into celebration? And if you're not, then it's exciting because there's an opportunity by the power of the spirit to more and more become that kind of person. You see, yesterday the podcast was all about Jesus and he's experiencing the Garden of Gatsenani in the pressing, right? Jesus knew how to hurt.
He knew how to share his feelings. He knew how to enter sorrow and in pain. And there's no question that Jesus was a man who was acquainted with sorrow when that was appropriate. There's also no question that Jesus was a man acquainted with joy.
And really, the truth is that people that are in touch with their pain are able to be truly joyous. And people that are truly joyous are able to be in touch with their pain. And we tend to find people that are all about pain and sorrow and kind of a victim to that pain and sorrow. And we find people that are just simply always trying to remain on some sort of high and everything's great.
And St. Jesus was not a victim who dwelt in pain and sorrow and always going there north was he the kind of person that always had to keep it up and keep it happy and remain on some sort of high. You see, Jesus danced and he mourned. And the last podcast was about mourning.
And now we're going to talk about dancing. So how are you at dancing? And again, let me turn that question around if I ask those that do life closest with you. How are you dancing?
What would they say? And of course, we've got John chapter two where Jesus is turning water into wine and there's this feast and there's dancing. There's dancing and there's fun and it's joking. And Jesus needs to be right in the center of all of that.
We've got Jesus always celebrating with people and sometimes celebrating with the wrong kinds of people. And then think of all the parables about wedding feast and great banquets. It almost seems like Jesus is favorite way to describe himself and the reality of the kingdom of God was celebrating the feast of the kingdom of eating and drinking with people and the dancing. And those are the images that he seems to always always go after.
And in Matthew chapter 11, we get a very interesting passage beginning of verse 16 Jesus says to what I compare this generation. They're like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out the others. They're saying the pipes, but you do not dance. We sing a dirge and you do not mourn.
For John, the Baptist came out of eating or drinking and they said he has a demon. But the son of man came eating and drinking and they say here is a glutton and a drunkard of friend of tax collectors and sinners. The wisdom will be proved right by her deeds. Now that's a very interesting passage.
But Jesus is saying there's a time where the pipes are played and you've got to dance. You've got to dance. And there's a time where there's a dirge. You know, funeral song, you've got to mourn.
And he's telling you, he's really like you're not going to do either. But following, you know, it looks like a dance when the pipes are playing. I'll show you what it looks like a mourn when a funeral dirge is played. I had to jump back to say John, the Baptist was a true ascetic.
He didn't eat or drink at all. But either son of man, I came eating and drinking. I came eating choice food and drinking wine. I'm not a true ascetic.
I'm a celebrator. I love the things that God has declared good. And I celebrate with people. In fact, it's interesting in this passage Jesus celebrated with people to the point where those that didn't like Jesus accused of being a glutton and a drunkard.
Now I think Jesus was a glutton and a drunkard. No, but do I think Jesus was doing some things with all the wrong people that caused the theories and the Sadducees to look in and say he's a glutton and he's a drunkard. Yes, I do. Jesus mourned and Jesus danced.
Jesus knew how to celebrate. And of course wisdom is proved right by her deeds. There must be a regular wisdom employed whenever eating and whenever drinking is in play. But Jesus trusted his wisdom and he was someone who was willing to celebrate.
So what would it look like to bring a bit of a levity into the relationships that we get the privilege of being a part of every day? Our teams, our families, our marriages, our dating relationships, our friendships, our staffs, our neighbors. What would it look like to bring a little bit of levity to what would it look like to take ourselves a little bit less serious sometimes? What would it look like to rest and simply enjoy the moment with someone else without needing to get to the next thing?
What might you need to stop doing in order to celebrate a bit more? Or what might you need to start doing to celebrate a bit more? Maybe enjoying food and drink? Maybe enjoying human laughter?
Maybe buying something for yourself or buying something for someone else? Maybe joking around a little bit more? And of course some of you might be a bit worried about this podcast. You know, I'm talking about Jesus eating and drinking.
Unfortunately, food and drink have been so abused in our culture that it's hard to talk about those things without the fear of abuse. But this just expresses the sad state of men and women made the image of God. Notice Jesus came and was mastered by nothing. He took authority over everything.
And so he was able to celebrate the things in God's world that God declared good. He was able to dance. He was able to rejoice. He was truly free.
He cried with those that cried more and with those that mourned, he laughed with those that laughed. He danced with those that danced, he ate with those that ate, drank with those that drank. He took the kingdom of God seriously, but didn't take himself too seriously. And I'm wondering, do I take myself too seriously?
Do you take yourself too seriously? What would others say about me or about you? When people experience you to the experience, the joy, the levity, the celebration, the open hand and nature of the kingdom of God, could you ever be accused of excessive happiness? Is there such a thing as excessive happiness?
You know, people experienced quite a bit of happiness when they experienced Jesus. There were times where he was so excessively happy that the religious looked at him and said, he's a glutton and he's a drunkard. He's a friend of tax collectors and he's a friend of sinners. But Jesus knew there was a time to dance.
And when that time was applying him, he danced. He also knew there was a time to mourn him when that time was applying him, he knew how to mourn. And some of us need to work on dancing. Some of us need to work on mourning.
Some of us need to work on both. But Jesus was a good time. He enjoyed people. People enjoyed him.
And when people were around Jesus, they felt the freedom to let loose. They felt the freedom to be themselves. And they felt the freedom to celebrate the feast of the kingdom of God that was breaking in. So what does it look like to celebrate, to celebrate good times?
Come on, one. We'll talk soon. Thanks for listening to the Together On Mission podcast. We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by you today.
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