What Not To Believe Follow up... (beyond the 360)

Last week I said some things that were intended to offend. I said words like sin, evil, lost, Not-God and hell. I said that the human soul is something that is easily corrupted, and like it says in the bible all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one! I showed how the human soul loves to take the throne of its life and begin composing a new reality. A reality that the individual soul becomes its own god, so that it can get what it wants. I said what it usually wants is sex and violence because that gives the corrupt soul the largest kick, but realistically it can cultivate anything that will make it feel stabile. Because the house of cards that is built on the foundation of you being God needs some stability. I said we are lost. LOST… Men and women who are not where they need to be. I said our pride is the thing that keeps us lost. Sitting on our throne getting what we want. Basically I stated a very bleak reality: I’m not OK and you’re not OK. We’re all in serious trouble.

I also did something that perhaps some of you didn’t appreciate. I didn’t talk much about the hope in Jesus. I figured we have done quite a bit of that already. Rarely do we analyze where we are, who we are and where we’re living… which seems to cultivate what I stated earlier. So it was my intention to leave you there. Those of you who know Jesus realize there‘s hope. Those of you who don’t may have just thought I was a dick for not giving you a way out.

So here I am today, doing a follow up to what I said, about the ruined soul. Apparently you didn’t get enough abuse last week. So here I am again.

I say abuse because that’s where this can go. I don’t want to abuse anyone with these very hard, bleak, concepts. Yet if we don’t have a concept of our need. The truth is: we will stay in our denial until it ruins us. And I don’t want that. And hard knocks is not my Job.

So to help us today I have a series of cards to pass out that are in the shape of a dress. Last week I took the concept of what not to wear and I thought it would be cool to stick with that same theme. I want to ask you a couple questions so I will pass out some pens as well for you to answer the questions.

Is your soul lost? (Why?)

How are you righteous/moral?

Do you anticipate that God could be harmful? (Why)

I’m not where God wants me to be because?

How are you like God?

Briefly get into groups of 2s and 3s and talk about the question that was hardest for you. (5min)

Back: which one was the hardest? Why?

OK so I have some fun other cards to give you. They are little people. And what’s fun is you can have the little person wear you little dress. Now I want to show you what usually happens when someone wears this dress.

(paper Doll)
“Oh this thing looks kick ass.” “I love how it looks and feels… and I bet when I put it on everybody will love me”

“I’m not lost Pastor Geoff I’m exactly where I need to be.” “Because God is with me he knows exactly where I am and as a result he would change things if I was in the wrong place.”

“I don’t need morals because they are how society kept people in line and that’s bullshit.” “I’m good because I’m not fucking Hitler or some shit.”

“God’s not harmful because he’s cool… he’s nice… he’s docile… In fact doesn’t the bible say that we are all children of God. So if I am God’s child. I think he’s pretty excited for me”

So realistically I am exactly where God wants me. Which makes me a lot like him. I’m a creator he’s a creator… I’m a lover he’s a lover. In fact isn’t there some sort of philosophy out there that says that we all are god. Which is pretty much true.

Hey I’m pretty much sure that god wants me to be a star.

Hey why on earth did a loving god give me such a fucked up life and not fix it.

Really is he loving? Really is this god thing real? Jesus said he saved us but I see nothing of that in church today.

Church people are hypocrites. I’m not a hypocrite because I don’t profess to know anything about God. Because realistically God can’t exist. I haven’t seen any evidence.

Fuck church, Fuck God. I’m going to be a star. Look at my clothes look at what I wear love me you love me.

When I’m around these people they don’t judge me, they help me. They love me. They give me things like wisdom, drugs, friendship. Things that god never gave me. He just rejected me. And so fuck god, fuck my life, everything is bullshit except for my friends that don’t judge me. They love me. They don’t tell me I’m wrong, or I need help, or I need therapy. They tell me I’m cool. And they love me."*

What would be a kind of garment that would do this to someone? Going from a basic middle of the road lifestyle and philosophy, to a bitter, angry lifestyle with no accountability to anyone but those who would tell you that you are right? Could it happen? Has someone seen it?

What could turn such a wonderful person who seems to have it together, into someone who is in it for themselves? (Sharpy “Pride” on the dress)

Do you agree?

When we wear pride. We are doing it for us. We begin spinning our reality to keep #1 on top. Usually any god talk that happens is to spin yourself back on top. Pride gives you a stance asking “what can you give me?” Love from a concept of pride is always consuming never giving. When it does give, it is so that reciprocation can happen. Joy when someone is wearing pride is reduced happiness. Peace doesn’t exist because you are always needing to satisfy the next thing to feel good.

Knowing this about this dress… why would you want to wear it? 

Here’s the thing that I think is so rough about this. We first have to want to wear it. So even before we are the dude saying all that with this dazzling dress on. We have it written here. (Write PRIDE on heart). In order to be the Person wearing this dress, we have to be the kind of person that wants to put it on. This garment isn’t about the garment. It’s about who we’ve decided to be.

And Pride is such a dismissed word here. I’m not prideful so I go one step further. Someone who would wear this dress has this on their heart. SELF = #1

And that is why we see the world becoming a place where people are used, abused, and taken advantage of. Because people are looking out for #1. Usually when they look at the daily news and see the bad news. They scream at the sky… “WHY?” but when you look at the state of people living their life today we should be asking “what is wrong?” when we see good news. A world full of SELVES wanting their way. This is the life of the ruined soul. And this is what Jesus came to change.

John Calvin said “for as the surest source of destruction to men is to obey themselves, so the only haven of safety is to have no other will, no other wisdom, than to follow the Lord wherever He leads. Let this, then, be the first step, to abandon ourselves, and devote the whole energy of our minds to the service of God.” This mind change starts here (Jesus=#1) So that you begin to be the Kind of person that would choose to wear different clothes.

This is called “death to self… or Self denial.” Which goes hand in hand with the restoration of the soul and eventually the whole person. It sounds like something dreadful. And from the point of view of the ruined soul, it is exactly that. The ruined life is not to be enhanced, but to be replaced. We must simply lose our life – that ruined life about which most people complain so much anyway.

Jesus said those who have found their life (or soul) shall lose it while those who have lost their life (or soul) for my sake shall find it. Whoever aims to save their life shall lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake shall find it. For what have you gained by possessing the entire world if in the process you forfeit your life (or soul) – lose yourself.

When we hear these words of Jesus he is teaching on the negative side, that we must not make ourselves and our “survival” the ultimate point of reference in the world. In other words when Jesus says that those who find their life shall lose it, he is pointing out that those who think they are in control of their life will find that they definitely are not in control: they are totally at the mercy of forces beyond them and within them. They are on a sure course to disintegration and powerlessness, they are lost to themselves and God. They must surrender.

In contrast, if they give up the project of being the ultimate point of reference for their life – of doing only what they want – there is hope. If they (in that sense) lose their life in favor of God’s life, for the sake of Jesus and what he is doing on this Earth – the revolution of Kingdom come he is conducting – than their soul (or life) will be preserved and thus given back to them.

What does this mean? It means that they will for the first time be able to do what they WANT to do. Of course they will be able to steal, lie, and murder all they want – which will be none at all. But they will also be able to be truthful, transparent, and sacrificially loving with joy, and they will want to be. Their life is caught up in God’s life. They will want good and be able to do it, the only true human freedom. 

So to lose your life means: Life as you have normally understood it: where the point is to secure yourself, promote yourself, and indulge yourself, that life is set aside.

And Jesus pointed out the bargain. To let go of a life filled with obsessive partial desires: a little illicit sex, money, reputation, power, self righteousness. For freedom to be who God designed you to be. A Man or Woman who is immersed in the Kingdom of God. Bringing sacrificial love to this world on Jesus’ behalf. Which is his Kingdom Come on earth as it is in Heaven. Trading a life of looking out for number one for becoming the kind of person who Jesus would be if he were you today.

Being Dead to yourself is the condition where the mere fact that I do not get what I want does not surprise or offend me and has no control over me. Is this the “apathy” of the stoic or the elimination of desire of the Buddhist? No. Apprentices to Jesus will be deeply disturbed about many things, and will passionately desire many things, but they will be largely indifferent to the fulfillment of their own desires as such. Merely getting their way has no significance for them. It does not disturb them.

They know that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose” They don’t have to look out for themselves because God – and not they – is in charge of their life. They appropriately look after things that concern them, but they do not worry about outcomes that merely affect adversely their own desires and feelings. They are free to focus their efforts on the service of God and others and the furthering of good generally, and to be as passionate about such things.

In your hands you have a dress. Some have decided to put it on. The Dress is pride. It’s what the world wears. It’s common. It’s what someone who is looking out for #1 wears. It leads to a life of obsessive partial desires. We choose to wear what we want.

But Here… I have some other clothing available. They are blank. And have the potential to look the same as your pride. Because it’s not what you wear and what you do on the outside. It is your heart that dictates what you are wearing.

So for the next couple minutes I want you to consider giving up your pride. Coming up here, and putting it in the trash. Stop the spinning, the self promotion, the I’m OK, and consider the world and see it for what it is. A Sham. 

After losing the dress. Look at the person who chose to wear pride. Is getting your way working? Is looking out for #1 doing well for you? Maybe it is. But if you are ready, change that etching on your heart to put Jesus there. Lose your life. Then choose some new clothes. Losing your life will make you wear something different. Spend some time in prayer and then write down some new words on your new clothes. Write down what life without self might look like for you. Write down what security looks like if you are out of the picture. Write down what love looks like when it expects nothing. Then if you’d like to share I think that that would be amazing. What would you wear when you have let go of your pride and life? What would you wear?

*OK so when I finished this tyrade of the paper doll. I looked up and everyone was quiet. Or maybe one or two said "OK" like I had just gone so far into my inner world that everyone was witnessing a mental breakdown. It was exactly like one of those movies where the record scratches and everybody either has their jaw down or is just quiet. I still think about this and laugh because I wasn't really out to disturb anyone... but it was apparent that I went too far.