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A clenched fist life results in anxiety, fear, and animosity at the expense of our neighbors and those around us.
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In today’s climate we have lost our desire for unity towards a greater cause
- Everyone is guilty of that
- We want to win at all costs and silence those who are against us
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No vision = perishing
- The church must lead the way to allow our imaginations to move towards the Kingdom of God and allow it to shape how we interact in this world
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We take in information at a neck brake speed, even when we don’t ask for it
- There is oftentimes a difference between information and truth
- If we don’t guard our hearts, we can get caught up in the anxiety and animosity towards our neighbor
- If you are a follower of Jesus, evil is a defeated foe and has no victory over you
- It’s not a battle that we have to win ourselves
- Evil is still there, and it will attempt to devour everything in its path
- Jesus is victorious
- Trust that more than we trust anything else
- The unity of the spirit is what we should be striving for
- Love our neighbors as ourselves
Luke 15:1-2
“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.””
- No matter who you are, you are invited and welcome to take a seat at Jesus’ table
- We can encourage that or mutter them away
Luke 16:1-13
“Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ “ ‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’ “ Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “ ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.””
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People love to find the line, go up to it, follow the letter of the law, but not the spirit
- This story highlights that the bills the manager is collecting on, he is taking away the interest off of the commodities
- The interest wasn’t supposed to be there, and it was tacked on to get around the rule of not lending money with interest
- The manager forgiving the interest forced the owner’s hand, because he couldn’t really protest because everyone would know that he’s wrong, even if everyone else is doing it
- That’s a good lesson by itself
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When religious people begin to lose control and start to live in scary times, they start to clench their fists to hold onto what they still have
- We move into protection mode instead of a bold, even more loving stance
- We don’t solve problems, we simply move into the division, seperation, isolation, and ultimately, brokeness of the world
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We can not heighten the standards of God
- God is God, and we are not
Love people more than our standards
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It’s sad that we as humans, often times we need/want someone to look down on
- It allows us to feel closer to God by climbing the mountain of people you’ve slain obsess of moving to the base of the mountain to protect others
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Our responsibility is to, with open arms, extend the invitation to our neighbors to know the Kingdom of God
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The only way forward as the church is to identify our brokenness, and invite the Holy Spirit to move through us.