TXT3

[It's helpful to watch this 5 minute video of Penn Gillette that we used last Sunday before reading this post.]

There are a thousand ways per day that I subtly say “I hate you.” I don’t intend it. I probably don’t even really mean it. But it’s there. Sometimes you might pick up on it. Most likely not. But if I were completely honest with myself, I’d have to admit that it’s there.

And the thing is, I don’t really hate you. In fact, I don’t even think about you all that much. I’m far too important to myself to think about you, really.

When I’d rather berate you with how right my beliefs are and how wrong your thinking is – that’s a form of hate. When I’d rather show you the door  than ask you over for dinner – that’s a form of hate. When I choose myself over you – that’s a form of hate. And, really, it’s not that I hate you. I just like myself more.

Don’t we all?

I justify my hate. After this many years, I’m pretty good at it. If I just live my life right, surely other people will see how much Jesus means to me. If I copy enough spiritual quotes to Twitter or Facebook, then, of course, people will know that there’s a God who desperately desires them. I justify my silence with my actions, but my actions, often, hardly whisper. And in that justification is a form of hate.

I don’t want to hate you. I want you to know that there is a God. And that this God is far greater than you can imagine. And that this God, from His very depths, longs for you. It’s not just that He loves you, but He likes you. He appreciates you. He wants to help you, and guide you, and transform you into something wholly better, for the benefit of both yourself and the people around you.

And I can’t understand why, when I’m so convinced of this over-powering, over-whelming, over-sacrificing God, I wouldn’t want everyone to know about it? If my relationship with Jesus is the most important relationship in my life, why don’t I speak about it more often? Have I become that complacent and selfish?

Have you?

It has been 3 days since I was challenged and convicted by the question, “how much do you have to hate somebody to not” tell them what you believe?  (If you missed Sunday night, check out the Penn video on the “current series” tab)  I have not been able to shake that question.  As I have reflected on this past Sunday’s TXT3 Experience, I have also been challenged by the words from the Nickelback video (also on the current series tab), specifically the last line of the chorus, “say it if it’s worth savin’ me“.  How many of our friends or people far from God would say the same thing to us if we held information that could change or save their life?

Say it if it’s worth savin’ me.

Do we feel that our friends are worth savin’?  I hope so.  Somebody thought I was worth savin’.  There is an even more challenging line from this song.  Towards the end of the song we hear these words, possibly from someone who was not lucky enough to be “saved” – “heaven’s gates won’t open up for me, with these broken wings I’m fallin’ and all I see is YOU“.  Let that picture settle in.  Do you have friends that know you are different?  know you go to church?  know you are one of those Christians?  What face will they see when their time is up and heaven’s gates won’t open up for them?  Do we know how to save a life?

So what does all of this have to do with beautiful feet?  In Romans 10:14-16, Paul is expressing his desire for people who don’t know God to be saved.  Then he asks a series of questions starting in verse 14, “but how can they call on him (Jesus) to save them unless they believe in him?  And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him?  And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?  And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?”  Do you see the progression in this series of questions?  To be saved they must believe, to believe they must hear, to hear someone must tell them.  Paul concludes in verse 17  that faith comes from “hearing the good news about Christ.”  Is it both awesome and scary that God is relying on His people to tell others this Good News.  Think about that, God chooses to use US to carry this Good News to a world that is crying out “say it to me if it’s worth savin’ me!”  When we do, God declares “how beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” (verse 15)

How much do I have to hate someone to not tell them what I believe to be good news?

Will I say it to them because it’s worth savin’ them?

Do I know how to save a life?

Do I have beautiful feet?

1. Make a commitment to be uncomfortable (sharing Jesus with people will do that to you)

2. Ask someone to “come and see” what God is doing at TXT3

3. Tell your story with someone.

Three things to do if we are going to love people.  I decided to type those out, because I think most of us are still thinking about the video blog from Penn Jillette.  Pretty powerful stuff.  There are a couple of things that have stuck with me this week as I’ve reflected on it (and I should say that this was my first experience with Penn Jillette and I’m in no way an expert on what he thinks or has said).  First, it is interesting that Jillette refers to the man who gave him a Bible as a “good man.”  Ironically, there is no such thing as “good” without some sort of moral reference point.  That is one of the logical problems with atheism.  God’s character gives us a definition of what is good and acceptable.  Without that we are left to our own ideas of good or we define good by what the majority of people (i.e. a country) deem as good.  That might sound like it makes sense, but ask a Jewish person who lived in Germany during the 1940s if “good” can be defined by a country’s laws.

The other thing that I’ve pondered is what happened to Jillette in his life that soured his openness to God.  He’s more than an atheist.  He’s an activist.  He spends a lot of time denouncing the God that he doesn’t believe in.  He says that religion causes a lot of problems in the world.  That is certainly a debatable point.  Why the closed eyes to all of the great things that the followers of Jesus have brought to the world? 

I don’t know the answers and I doubt I’ll ever meet him, but today is certainly a day that I can pray for him!

Application Ideas

• Invite someone to TXT3 next week (promise to buy their coffee).
• Write out your story.  Do it in three paragraphs.  First, what was your life like before you met Jesus?  Second, how did you meet Jesus?  Third, what is Jesus doing in your life now?
• Tell your story to someone this week.
• Bake cookies and take them to work with some TXT3 cards (you can pick cards up from the office)
• Put a TXT3 screen as your computer background and pray for conversations to start because of it.
• Talk to a few of your neighbors and ask them how you can pray for them this week.
• If you go out to eat, ask your waiter how you can pray for him/her.
• Make a list of seven people that you know need Jesus.  Pray for one of them a day.

Text Answers

We asked three succesive questions. Taken all together, the answers were very telling:

How many names of your neighbors do you know? (69 responses)

How many neighbors do you know that go to church? (74 responses)

How many neighbors have you shared your story with? (78 responses)

Music

Let Your Glory Shine, Lincoln Brewster
Everlasting God, Chris Tomlin
Jesus Messiah, Chris Tomlin
How to Save a Life, The Fray
Here I Go Again, Casting Crowns

Video

Savin’ Me, Nickelback Music Video

Penn (of Penn & Teller): A Gift of a Bible

My guess is that you have never thought about the connection between bowling and community.  Even after the first TXT3 Community night, I bet you did not go home thinking “bowling tonight really helped me connect the dots on biblical community”.  It’s OK, I didn’t either.  I could spend this time trying to make some theological argument using bowling as an analogy for true biblical community and could probably make a compelling case.  I could do that, but I probably shouldn’t do that, so I won’t.  The plain truth is, we went bowling because we wanted to “do life together”, get to know one another better and simply have fun together.  I think we accomplished all three.  I had many people ask me “so when are we doing this again?”.  I don’t have the answer for when, but you can bet there will be another TXT3 Community night in the future.  Thanks for being a part of another “first” at TXT3.