I love what Jay and shared with us because I really leads into this question I wanted to ask you to start things off into this. What are we creating around us? Many times it seems like all of the things that hit us constantly, the moment that we wake up, we're thinking about important things. It seems like there's a due list that is sleeping alongside of us.
And it has this way of immediately hitting our head in our heart to second our feet hit the floor. But what are we creating around us? There's also this phrase that I've learned over the last few years. And it kind of keeps showing up in trainings and things I read, things I think about, all this kind of stuff.
And that phrase is this, words create worlds. And what's so interesting when I began to dig into this phrase, especially in some of the more, like when I hear this in trainings is this, they talked about the fact that, and I'm not a neuroscientist, I'm fascinated by them, but I'm not one. This is the redneck version of Chad trying to understand this. But this phrase, it speaks to how the cognitive function happens inside of our brain.
And neuroscientists say that our speaking, that our listening, that our talking, that our hearing, it actually builds and grows our brain. Our brain is the only muscle in our body that can self-repair, that can be growing, can be changing throughout our life. And then what's so interesting, these folks also say, if we're not talking, or if we're not listening, if we're not interacting with people, that our neural pathways in our brain begin to die off, that the muscles can atrophy, just like our muscles and our arms are in our legs. But the more we have new conversations, the more we have new interactions, the more we talk with new people, what's so wild is even the more we talk about new things, what happens is the brain begins building different roads inside of our mind that we did not have before.
Our cognitive function grows. So what these scientists talk about now, especially the last few years, they say that when we live in relational or ideological silos, our brain slows down in shrinks. But if we stretch ourselves inside of our verbal interaction with other people, and this is something that doesn't happen by reading or watching, it happens by talking and engaging, that new worlds literally are created in our mind. What one of these scientists, he called this, is a conversation, is a symphony of mental activity.
And every time I read about this, but especially we're talking about Luke and these words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke right now, it sends me back to how God always uses words to relate to people, but also to create the world. He spoke the world into existence. The Gospel of John begins in the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God. He was in the beginning of the God that Jesus Christ is talked about at the beginning of all time, is communication, is word, is speaking, and even in Luke's Gospel, from the very beginning to the very end, this idea of hearing and listening and responding is scattered all throughout Luke's entire version of the story of Jesus, as though it's like the chapter markers inside of these things.
Our hearing matters, because our words create worlds. And last week we talked about the passage, it was directly behind this. We're kind of part twoing it this morning a little bit, but what we talked about was how Jesus gathered all his disciples together in front of a bunch of other different folks and talked to them directly. And we asked ourselves the question, what makes Jesus different, and what makes us as Christians different?
Immediately we left off last week, we start up this week, and our passage today leads off with the phrase, but to you who are listening. That word thing comes back up, words create worlds, to you who are listening. So you have this big huge crowd that just heard Jesus direct things specifically and intentionally to his disciples, and he stops and says, okay, but to everyone here who is listening, let me tell you this. And I think that what we're seeing here in this passage is Jesus building more of this idea of difference that we talked about.
And at the end last week, what I shared was a quote from David Kenemann where he says that for us to order, understanding what Jesus is asking us to be different, but we need to keep Christianity weird, to not be normal, to not be observable, to not be predictable, but the different faith that Jesus has built out in front of people, is to keep Christianity weird. So Jesus leads off, but to those who are listening, and now Jesus starts asking folks to reframe who they are, and then he wits off a bunch of actions, he says, that's about loving, it's about doing good, it's about blessing, it's about praying, it's about turning cheeks if you were slapped, and that's absolutely been our new cycle this last week. High irony, this passage was picked about a month ago. Jesus talks about giving, and then he gets to the golden rule, which we're used to, but it's just in a different way than we read about it in the Gospel of Matthew, but to do to others is you would have them do to you, and this is where that different idea begins to break in.
Jesus talks about love a lot, but what's so interesting is he doesn't talk about love being something that's moral, that's what we're used to, but instead we hear it, Jesus talks about love being mission, it's not just morality, it's not just an individual thing, but it's a corporate thing, it's about the mission of God and love is that vehicle of how the mission moves forward, remember Jesus is drawing outlines of different, he's a world building right now. And to live like Jesus is talking about means that we withdraw from the categories where the world will talk about love and how we sort things out and how we sort people out, we sort out worth, we sort out what we're going to give our time and our resources to, and Jesus invites people to begin seeing the distinction, the difference of his kingdom. So this is that place where Jesus begins kind of walking out of the moral frame and entering into the idea of love as mission, Jesus has been describing this world for these people and he's been doing miracles that speak of this world, he's been healing people to talk about this world, he's been casting out demons to show his control over the supernatural world, we had a fun little chart about this last week, Jesus does all these things to show the power and the reality and the truthful existence of this world and he invites people into it, he describes it for them and then he says you activate this world by coming alongside of God and he invites them to act. That the kingdom of God is the actions of a sovereign God that's activated by his followers, Jesus building this new world brick by brick by brick in front of them with words that are called to live the life of difference, words create worlds.
And seriously, so many of these actions are weird, they go against what we feel like. Friends, we've got this janky idea of love as a contract. Like we believe in it as long as it works out for us, but there's always gonna be an end to it, there can always be an end to it. No matter how much we care about a person or how much we are willing to do things with them or for them, that sort of thing, there's always some sort of unspoken button that can be pressed that stops that relationship, that contract then breaks.
We love as long as it works out for us and there will be some sort of an end that we can call out. And Jesus is here talking about this love in a way where he's saying, in my kingdom, people who hear these things aren't scared to stick their neck out for somebody. They don't count the cost because no matter where we are, when we are in need, sometimes we just need someone to risk things for us, don't we? We're willing to stick their neck out for us.
No matter who you are, no matter how capable you are as a person, no matter how capable you are, as a partner, as a friend, as a parent, as a child, as a boss, as a student, as a business, whatever you are, all the categories you use to categorize yourself, no matter how capable you are, and there's folks in this room that are extremely capable, but no matter how capable we are, we will hit points in our life where we aren't capable anymore and we need someone to stick their neck out for us, be willing to risk for us. And we will come to points in times in our life where that falls flat. And if you've ever been there, you've ever needed someone to do that, and it hasn't happened, friends, that's when worlds fall apart, isn't it? And what Jesus is talking about here is this love of the kingdom is a commitment that's unlike what the world can build, that this is a love that takes risks in community, that the difference of this world is not a difference that sorts, but it's a difference that includes Jesus inviting us to step out of a world where love is a contract and instead create a world that's based off of self-sacrifice and safety because of love.
As Christians, we're gonna have different qualities and assumptions about life. Now we might think sometimes in our faith, it's literally like, well, this is my favorite barbecue restaurant to go to, it's just this thing that we do that describes us. It's a thing like, well, I like dodge trucks, or I'm a lot more of a college basketball person than a professional basketball person. But our faith is not supposed to be a category, it's supposed to be a different quality and assumption of life and what we see Jesus playing into this, Jesus breaks this apart by how he talks about sinners.
Don't let's throw that slide up. We've January this for us earlier. So three times he's like, even sinners, even sinners, even a kid, you might be saying, Jad, this is what I'm talking about right here. We'll be talking about this love stuff a bunch, but there's some folks out there just doing stuff wrong.
This is sort of different, I wanna hear about. Now Jesus always found his way to Tango with these religious leaders, that they lived in a broken world where they believed that their religious practice separated them and made them different because it made them better than other people. They lived in a framework where better equaled different. What Jesus is talking about here is that different is bigger than better, even sinners.
But what I told you all, Jesus is inviting us to step outside of the moral frame right now. If we think even if, all right, I'm better than somebody, I'm better than those sinners, that's living in that moral frame. Jesus already he's pulled us out of this and what's so interesting is he talks about this in terms of the Gentiles. So when he says even sinners here, what he's saying is Gentiles and not a derogatory sense.
He's literally saying, okay, no, God's chosen people, we're the Jews. Our whole religious makeup category, everything is about us being different. We're called to be different. What you're trying to say is you wanna get rewarded for a difference, it's actually not that big of a deal because even the Gentiles love the people who love themselves, you're no different than them.
Even the Gentiles will repay debts, you're no different than them. But Jesus talks about us in a way of difference. Like we try to talk about different by talking about excluding. By holding out, by not sticking our necks out.
That's human created difference. It's not a difference that God calls us people to. Genesis 22, 18, way, way, way, way back. And the story of God and his people, it says this.
And through your offspring, all nations of the earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me. God calls a specific people to be a specific people. Genesis 22, 18, and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me. Let's actually walk this passage out backwards.
To obey does not, it's not a moral word. It's not a do's and don'ts kind of word. But in Hebrew, what obey means is to protect the things that are valuable to you. It's the word that's used to talk about building a fortress.
Like you were piling things up against the things that you know matter the most. You're protecting them. So obedience means I know this different life God's called me to. I know how God is different.
I know what this difference looks like. And I'm gonna make conscious decisions in my life to protect that because it is precious to me. Your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me. The next thing is all nations will be blessed.
So because we understand this difference and we're careful with this difference and we preserve this difference. And you can't preserve something you don't realize. Like when you find something valuable that you've lost, this is very valuable. We're gonna be protected and be careful with it.
And the freedom that comes from God, all the beautiful things that God has talked about, they will come out into the entire world. Through us, our difference thing also says, and through your offspring. I love this part right here. He's saying, if you do this just on your own, that's not good enough.
That if you don't understand this, if you don't live this out and walk this out enough for the people who follow you to understand why this is important, why you're protecting it, that this isn't going to happen. You have to live this with a level of intentionality, but also publicly and transparent in a way that causes those who come after you to take up this mantle and to protect it. Friends, there's no such thing as a second generation follower of Jesus. You don't get born into this.
Through your offspring on nations, on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me. The original call of God and his people was to form up a different people for the blessing of everyone else, not for the blessings of themselves. James Edwards says this, the positive command to love, rather than simply to refrain from doing evil. So you have positive holiness and you have negative holiness.
The positive command to love, rather than simply refrain from doing evil, causes believers to examine themselves in deep and searching ways. In such examination alters more than behaviors, it alters character itself. But this intentional focus, this is rewriting our neural pathways towards Jesus. Friends, we can know all the things on earth, but if our character is trash, we're in trouble.
Jesus is not inviting us to know more, Jesus is inviting us to be more. Jesus is slowly building out an invitation to be different. And all throughout chapter six, you see him communicating this wider and wider and wider. As always, I have a fun chart.
We see this is chapter six, this is broad. So the big, in the very middle, verse 12, Jesus is in prayer by himself, communing with God, drawing a strength and source of power from his relationship to God, the Father. He begins this whole larger story in chapter six, by himself in prayer and communion. In verse 29, in verse 20, we see him invite the disciples together and he gives them a call to difference.
That's what we talked about last week. But he gives him this call in front of everyone, not in front of everyone, because this is a transparency. This is what I'm expecting of the people I'm calling to lead this movement. Then we're in 27, we're in the blue circle right now.
That's this week. He begins speaking to this larger crowd. It's though their ears have been turned by his words to the disciples first saying, this actually sounds different. I wonder if there's a place for me inside of this.
Other people might be saying, this sounds like some sort of unbelievable pipe dream. This guy's a lunatic. There's no way that you can stay safe if you follow what he does. The consequences are simply too green.
And Jesus says, to those of you who are listening, throughout scripture, I always just call for those who have ears to hear, or just create worlds. Then this white dot, verse 46, this white dot to scary dot, this is what it says. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?
This is what happens when someone just has functional knowledge of the idea of Jesus. It has never bent their heart and their actions towards difference. Because friends just recognizing Jesus isn't enough. We have to hear Jesus.
We have to act on what we hear. We have to allow this to transform us and to change, not just our mind, but our character, our hard, our actions, the reasons we make decisions in the way we do. And different is that, it's different. And difference is going to look a lot different at every place, and every age, and every time.
You all different 2000 years ago, doesn't necessarily mean different now. And what looks different in our community is going to look different than what's 10 miles down the road in Monro, in a classroom. You can share with the statistic that one out of every three people in in Stirlington are living in poverty. And one of the things I've talked about a lot is this, that statistic isn't right.
Because Stirlington has more transient population than any other community in Washita Parish. There are more rental properties in Stirlington. There are any other airing Washita Parish. That one out of three is a low.
It's skewing low. It's probably most likely one out of two. And depending on where you live, where you stay at, you might not see that statistic in front of you. Different is going to be different in different spaces.
What is Jesus calling and asking us to do to be the visible representation of the goodness of God where we are right now? The difference of Jesus invites us into a difference of actions. But we always have to remember this. There's a way that we can skew off of this this moment.
We're not going to go far down this, but we have to keep ourselves centered as this. This difference can't happen by us just thinking on activity. Because the biggest thing that the world needs from us right now, it's not going to be found first in our actions, but it's going to be found in our worship. David Kenneman, that quote, keep Christianity weird.
That's from a couple of years back. We go back about 60 years, A.W. Tozer. We've got the ball already all in serious.
We talk about it constantly because he's worth talking about. This is what he says. Go to church once a week and nobody pays attention. Worship God seven days a week and you become strange.
You become different. We allow our heart to be reoriented. Because what's so wild is in the kingdom of God different is normal. Different is what's expected.
Different is what's supposed to be and what will be in the future. We can't live this different life. It's not sustainable if we try to draw it up off of ourselves. When I said we're not capable of these things.
Jesus is capable. Jesus is big enough. That's what we draw our source, our power from. He's the only one who's truly different.
So we finished exactly how we started asking you this question. What world are you creating right now? What world are we creating? What is the world that we're creating first in our own hearts?
What truthfulness do we allow to define us as people? It's the first space of difference. Us saying I'm going to define myself in Jesus. Not trying to define myself and myself in Jesus.
Then what world am I creating different through my outward actions? That's fear of influence. What kind of difference am I creating and the things I can touch? But then we're the kingdom where that kind of wild multiplication happens inside the economy of God is when groups of people begin living in the world.
And then we're the people who begin living differently internally and externally and then linking together their external difference. You see the community of God begin to flourish. That's where you see crazy weird, strange things start to happen. And when we pray every single Sunday morning I pray for you can do more with what we have than we can do with what we have.
There's a lot of stories in this room that can talk about that. We'll be in here a long time if we started that game today. But what happens when we start allowing our own Holy Spirit difference to overlap with other people's Holy Spirit difference? And to see the kingdom of God come manifest in our world.
Friends, that's the kind of different life. That people in our communities desperately need at every single place where they are. But the good news is we don't do it by ourselves.