Jesus Hits the Beach 2016

Transcription

1 An interactive, Monday through Friday, journey through the SouthBrook Five S s of Solitude, Scripture, Service, Support and Significant Events, and how to integrate them into your life. Jesus Hits the Beach 2016 fiveonfive Challenge: Summer Version Collaborating with our Five S Team, I designed this material to take you through five days of the Five S s with SouthBrook, whether you are by yourself, with your family, or in a small group. We really believe in the transformative power of these ancient practices. They are time-tested and grounded in Jesus lifestyle and teachings. We re going to spend five days thinking about and applying the principles of Jesus famous parable of the house built on solid rock versus a house built on a sandy beach. A beach is a great place to vacation but it would be a difficult place to build a house that lasts. Each day takes a look at each S, Monday through Friday. Each day is divided into three sections: Warm Up, Stretch and Practice. So, grab your beach towel and let s hit the beach with Jesus as He teaches us how to build the life that lasts forever. Charlie McMahan 1

2 Solitude Monday Ah, the beach. Sun. Sand. Surf. Like many of you, I love the beach. I really look forward to going to the beach in the summer. I should have been one of the Beach Boys. I could be on the beach sun up to sun down and never get tired of it. Just park my beach chair under my scarlet OSU canopy, put my feet in the sand, let the breeze waft in, and read book after book with a few naps between reads, of course. What s your favorite beach memory? (Not a beach person? What s your favorite vacation memory?) What if someone showed you intricate designs for a Malibu beach house and said, You know, it s going to be too much work to build it on solid rock. You have to dig too deep. I m building it on the sand. I have a strong design so it will be okay. You would think, That is not smart. I m not sure that will last. Time will tell. In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus goes to the beach. He concludes the famous Sermon on the Mount by talking about the risks of beach house design. 2

3 These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards. Matthew 7:24-27 (The Message Bible) Jesus is saying, You would be very smart if you listen and do exactly what I tell you to do. Sometimes what appears to be ignorant is not ignorant at all. In fact, it is the smart thing to do. The guy who built his beach house on the sandy beach may have looked smarter initially than the man who built his house a little farther inland on the rock. Building a house on sand was closer to shore and more convenient. There was a good supply of water. It was easy to dig there. It appeared safe because that area was seldom hit by storms- and for a while all seemed to go well. The house was impressive and the family settled in. But then down came the rain. The floodwaters swirled. The winds blew angrily. And the house with no solid foundation collapsed. They lost everything. But at the same time a man built his house upon the rock. It was harder to dig there. It was inconvenient for the water supply. The materials had to be dragged farther up the shore s ledge. Maybe the people of that community thought he was overly conservative because he took so much longer than the owner who had built his down by the shore. But then the storm hit. The house on the rock stood firm and that man and his family stood secure, even in the midst of a horrific storm. The life and words that Jesus brought into the world came in the form of information and reality. He and his early associates overwhelmed the ancient world because they brought into it a stream of life at its deepest, along with the best 3

4 information possible on the most important matters The people initially impacted by that message generally concluded that they would be fools to disregard it. That was the basis of their conversion. Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy SOUL TEXT: What is your foundation for life? What wisdom are you really building your life upon? Is it a forever foundation? The reason I love the parable of the wise and foolish builders is because it is at the core of what it means to follow Christ: believing He was right to the extent that I build my life on His principles and practices. On Solitude Mondays, we focus on getting quiet and letting God speak into our lives. Find a quiet place and take a few minutes to do this exercise of Solitude that helps us determine what we really want in life. Check off the following and see if they apply to you: Would you want to be one of those smart people who know how to live a rich and unshakable life? Would you like a life free from loneliness, fear, stress and anxiety and someone with a strong sense of peace and joy? Would you like to love your neighbors as you love yourself and be free from anger, envy, lust, and coveting? Would you rather be free to manage and truly enjoy money instead of it managing you? Would you like to be free from the need for others to praise you all the time and free from the paralyzing effects of others criticism and condemnation? Would you like to have the inspiration and strength to lead a constant life of creative goodness? Would you like to have the strength and understanding that enables you to genuinely and naturally to bless those who are cursing you- or cheating you, laughing at you, or de-valuing you? Would you like to be so secure as an individual you could offer the other cheek to someone who has slapped you? A person for who insults would not bother deeply? 4

5 Would you like to have the strength and understanding to give all the assistance needed to someone who has forced you to drop what you are doing and help out and go the second mile? Would you like to be free from the need to control others behavior through judgment and critique and the accompanying resentments created? If you checked any of those, you are a candidate for a solid life made of eternal materials. That was simply a review of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. These are the practices Jesus says are the elements of the forever life. And remember: Jesus wisdom works in real life even though in this world it doesn t always make immediate sense. What happens when you build a house on sand instead of rock? This dad and his kids decided to find out. Scripture Tuesday You re on the beach. It s a great day to build a sandcastle. What s your dream sandcastle design? If you could build a sandcastle that would never wash away, one that would WOW the other beachgoers, that would be featured on the national nightly news, that would become a YouTube sensation, what would you build? The ocean and the beach are ever changing. You can t just plant yourself by the water and expect the sand under your chair to stay there and hold you. 5

6 It s not a predictable foundation. It s not constant. Today, you re feeling motivated so you and your clan are going to build a sandcastle. If you re going to spend time building a sandcastle you have to build it away from the shore because the waves could wash it away. And we all know that sandcastles are temporary; we don t spend all day building a sandcastle and then go in for dinner and expect to come out the next morning and find it is still there. We know it is temporary, it s made of shifting sand and it s going to be washed away. That s the picture Christ gives of the constantly shifting wisdom of the world- in contrast to His claim of forever wisdom. These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on Matthew 7:24 (The Message) How do we begin the process of building a substantive life on Christ, one that lasts and lasts and lasts? Read carefully, for here is where that life starts: The foundational words of Jesus come in the form of IDEAS, IMAGES and INFORMATION. Let s look at them more deeply. IDEAS are ways of thinking. IDEAS are how we interpret our world and ourselves. They are so pervasive we don t even think they re there. Examples of IDEAS are things like freedom, education, happiness, the American Dream, science, progress, death, home, the religious, democracy, fairness, justice, family and creation. Spiritual IDEAS are concepts like redemption, sin, atonement, shame, grace, truth, hope, faith, love and resurrection. IDEAS are abstract. IMAGES, however, are concrete and specific. IMAGES are mediators between ideas and real life. IMAGES make IDEAS real. There was a man who built his house on the rock. There was a father who had a son who went off to the far country. A woman lost a coin and searched for it. A man had one hundred sheep and one of them was lost. 6

7 Luke, I am your father. You re gonna need a bigger boat. Even the smallest person can change the course of the future. If you build it they will come. Those are IMAGES. So is a painting, a film, a song, a sculpture or a play. The cross, of course, is maybe the most powerful image in history. IDEAS and IMAGES are almost always agents of evil or good. IDEAS and IMAGES control the meaning we assign to what we deal with, and they can even blind us to what lies plainly before us. IDEAS and IMAGES are, accordingly, the primary focus of Satan s efforts to defeat God s purposes with and for humankind. When we are subject to his chosen ideas and images, he can take a nap or a vacation. Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy IDEAS create IMAGES and IMAGES empower IDEAS- good or evil ones. IMAGES increase the danger of bad IDEAS! The image you have of yourself and God can override everything else and cause you to acts in ways contrary to the most obvious reality and good sense. The process of being changed to be more and more like Christ is one of gradually replacing your destructive images and ideas about yourself and God with the images and ideas that filled the mind of Jesus himself. But it doesn t stop with IDEAS and IMAGES. There must be accurate INFORMATION. INFORMATION is simply the facts. Without correct INFORMATION, our ability to think has nothing to work with that is reality. He who has the INFORMATION has the power to change. What if you re a writer and you are uninformed about the library or the Internet or Google? Is your life affected? Yes! What if you re a doctor in the 18th century and you don t know about the deadly germs your hands carry? Will hundreds or even thousands of people die? Yes! In the same way a failure to know what God is like destroys the soul, ruins society, and leaves people broken. Jesus words remind us we need to know the truth about God. That s valuable INFORMATION, maybe the most valuable. Basic INFORMATION about God and life is essential. We must grow in INFORMATION- not just to know for knowing the right answersbut so we can live aligned with reality. Let s say you believe that = 4. You will live in accordance with that INFORMATION when you add up how many 7

8 dollars you have in the house to buy some groceries. The advantage of believing in that equation is not so you can pass arithmetic tests, it s so you can deal with reality. Try dealing with reality by believing that = 6. Maybe it is! Figure this one out if you love math: U7ove9dl70I/AAAAAAAAAvg/ARRZ-_YYX1Y/s640/apr13.gif What if you really believe the words and wisdom of Jesus are as true as = 4 and without peer in value? SOUL TEXT: Do you really believe Jesus words are the foundation for a life that last forever? Do you want to? (You ll get the life you want, you know.) On this Scripture Tuesday, let s bring the words of Christ into the design of your life. The power of Christ is seen in how He integrates your IDEAS, IMAGES and INFORMATION so they becoming transformative. INTEGRATED THINKING is what allows you to see the big picture- to see it clearly and wholly. INTEGRATED THINKING undermines false or misleading ideas and images. Think about it this way: IDEAS are like the architectural style of a house, IMAGES are the designs, models and plans of a house and INFORMATION is the basic theory of construction that makes it all work. INTEGRATED THINKING is what a contractor applies to bring it all together into a lasting, beautiful house. Take a few minutes and think about Jesus famous beach house story from Matthew 7. As an exercise in integrating the forever words of Christ, write down in simple sentences your answers to these four questions: 1. What is an IDEA being communicated in the story? 2. How do you picture the IMAGE of the two houses? 3. What INFORMATION is Jesus communicating that is vital for you to know today? 4. How can you INTEGRATE the three to give yourself a clear action, something you can do today toward building a life that lasts forever? No more sandcastle living! The CAT construction equipment company constructs tallest sand castle: 8

9 Service Wednesday Mark Twain said, When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years. Forrest Gump (the patron saint of looking ignorant but being very smart) said, Stupid is as stupid does. Smart doesn t always look smart. Have you found Jesus yet, Gump? Lieutenant Dan I didn t know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir. Forrest Lieutenant Dan got me invested in some kind of fruit company. So then I got a call from him, saying we don t have to worry about money no more. And I said, that s good! One less thing. Forrest We was always taking long walks, and we was always looking for a guy named Charlie. Forrest When did you Gump? What s a decision you ve made that did not make sense to others at the time, but in the long run it Gumped? Some neighborhood boys liked to make fun of a boy who was intellectually slow and one of their ploys was to hold before him a nickel in one hand and a dime in the other hand, offering him one for his choosing. He would inevitably choose the larger coin and the boys would go off to the side and snicker at his ignorance. One of the boys felt guilty and so he took the slow boy aside and said, Don t you understand that if you should choose the dime- even though it is smaller- it is worth twice the value of the nickel? 9

10 The slow boy responded, Yes. But don t you know that if one time I choose the dime neither would be offered again? Sometimes what appears to be ignorant is not ignorant at all. In fact, it is the smart thing to do. Jesus wisdom works that way. These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards. Matthew 7:24-27 (The Message) As we learned on Monday, the smart guy must not have initially looked very smart. It took a lot more work and investment to build away from the shore. And then the storm hit. Then he seemed very smart. Jesus wisdom does not always pay off immediately. As a matter of fact, you can look like a fool if you follow Christ s design for building your beach house. He taught radical ideas about reality: The way up is down. The way in is out. The way first is last. The way of strength is weakness. The way of security is vulnerability. The way of protection is forgiveness. The way of life is death death to self. Want to get the most? Go to where the least is. Want to be free? Give God complete control of your life. Want to discover who you are? Forget who you have been. Want to get even with your enemies? Pray for them. And then, of course, was the big contrarian idea that turned the world upside down: The way of true success is humble service. The Service message of Jesus is counter-cultural and counter-intuitive. Simply stated: If you want to be truly great, then the direction you must go is down. Bill Hybels wrote a book with a title that perfectly summarized the journey of following Christ: Descending into Greatness. You must go down to be great. 10

11 At the heart of this paradox is still another paradox: Greatness is not a measure of selfwill, but rather self-abandonment. The more you lose, the more you gain. If you have reservations about that Jesus-based concept it s understandable. Descending into greatness seems absurd, the ultimate oxymoron. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that this lifestyle is everything it s cracked up to be: anonymity, servanthood, downscaling, decreasing, losing, dying. Let s face it, even the best Manhattan advertising agency would be hard pressed for a catchy jingle. Lose it all. Imagine the possibilities. Wow. Bill Hybels, Descending into Greatness Adam Grant is a popular leadership guru today who writes about two kinds of people in any organization: Givers and Takers. Givers understand this idea. Takers really, really struggle. SOUL TEXT: Do you get this idea that to live a life that lasts you must have the Christ-like strength to go down? (Philippians 2:1-11) A man went to the doctor and he said, Doc, when I push right here it hurts like mad. When I push over here it s excruciating. When I push on my neck it really hurts. The doctor said, We re going to have to take some x-rays. The x-rays came back and the man said, Doc, have you found the problem? The doctor said, Yeah. You have a broken finger. We have a multiplicity of problems in our world. It hurts over here and over here and over here But so much of it has to do with our inability as a culture/company/school/team/office/ group/family/marriage to accept and live within this reality: The greatest among you will be the servant of all. Be great today. Go down to lift someone below you up. It may not look smart, but then again, what is smart does not always look like it. A man wore a t-shirt. On the front it said, I m a Fool for Christ. On the back it said, Whose Fool are You? Everybody s a fool for somebody. Whose fool are you? 11

12 A reluctant hero Sir Nicholas Winton, organized the rescue of 669 children destined for Nazi concentration camps. Support Thursday What would (or does) your dream beach house look like? Where would it be? If you were given one skill to build a house, what construction skill would you want to have? So, you re in the process of building your life on the foundation of Christ s way, Christ s wisdom and Christ s words. You re willing to go the extra mile and build your house away from the beach, on solid rock. These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock Matthew 7:24-25 (The Message) The next question is, Who are the people with whom you will build a life that lasts forever? The wisdom of Christ repeatedly speaks this truth into your life and mine: Never try to build your beach house alone. 12

13 Jesus taught and modeled the life built by Support. Let me characterize a story progression that has been repeatedly expressed to me through the years: I was brought up to believe in God and all but I rebelled against my parents and the idea of a God. That s how I lived my life- far from God. A friend invited me to SouthBrook and we had just had kids and we started thinking we needed to get into church. When I came in I was asking the truth question. I wanted to know, Is it true? Does this Jesus stuff work in real life? That s primarily what I was interested in. Because I had struggle in my life, I was interested in whether this Jesus message works. I would come into SouthBrook, sit there and listen. It was made relevant to my life and to make a long story short after applying what I heard weekend after weekend I was convinced by the fact that Jesus teachings proved themselves in actual practice. But now I have another need: I can t live the life Christ calls me to on my own. Where will I get the help I need? Our guy was looking for something that would work in his life and bring it meaning. And then once he discovered it he realized what many realize: he needs Support to live it out. So do I. So do you. Building spiritually substantive relationships of mutual Support is one of the most rewarding investments you will make in your lifetime. I ve done it for many years now. It s not easy. It s not pain-free. It s not without struggle and setback. These relationships are like building a house: a slow, methodical and sometimes frustrating process that must be done the right way and with great patience. SOUL TEXT: Are you being intentional, careful and methodical about building a lasting life on Jesus wisdom and doing so with Supportive others? A house has stages of development in its construction. Each specialist has a specific role. I ve listed nine of them below. If each is symbolic of an important step in building a life, identify three you need to pray for to have in your life. If you are with your fiveonfive group, talk about them and the role each of you may play 13

14 in one another s lives. One person may be multiple roles in your life; at various points all the roles will be needed as you go through construction. ARCHITECT: This role is someone who has experience in the Jesus life and can help me see who I am, where I m going and what my plan can be to build the life in Christ I want to build. EXCAVATOR: This role helps me to clear away the debris of my old life. This person may be a counselor, a pastor, or maybe just a wise and trusted friend who helps me to process unnecessary dirt from my past that would hinder building a new life with a strong foundation. FRAMER: This role helps me to construct the necessary priorities to frame my day, my week and my life around the Five S s. This role holds me accountable to constructing daily, life-changing habits. BRICKLAYER: This role adds substance and strength to my life. To miss this role is to still have a house but it does not have the lasting quality to endure the storms. ELECTRICIAN: This role adds power to my life. The vitality of spirit (enthusiasm!) required to build a lasting life is empowered by others encouragement and strength channeled into my life. PLUMBER: This role helps me to regularly flow the water of the Spirit of Christ into my life while allowing junk to be removed. This role deals with the very hidden aspects of my soul others may not notice. ROOFER: This role provides protection from my environment. Without this role in my life I would be vulnerable to the rain of adversity and winds of temptation. CARPENTER: This role models the inner work that makes my life attractive in the same way Christ s life was attractive. This role helps me to finish the detail work of my life without getting cluttered by my own failures and imperfections. PAINTER: This role brings the beauty and color of grace into my life. This role is reflected in the emergence of my discovering the multiple shades of color (life!) Christ has for me to enjoy and express. Talk about these. Pray for them. Practice them for one another. Never build alone! 14

15 Significant Events Friday What is the worst storm you have ever experienced first hand? Using the house analogy how is the storm symbolic of your story? How would you tell your story using the image of a beach house? Let s read these great words one more time. These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living if you just use my words in Bible studies and don t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards. Matthew 7:24-27 (The Message) If only the Significant Events of our lives were sunny days on the beach under the canopy- but they are not. Much of life is lived coming out of a storm, recovering from a storm, or getting ready to enter a storm. That s not cynical. It s reality. Life really isn t a day at the beach. And the life of Christ does not appear to be wise- until the storm hits. That s the difference. (Have you gotten that central idea yet?) 15

16 Many people- maybe you- don t think they really need a relationship with Christ until the storm hits. You may be talented. You may be rich. You may be impressive. But when a storm hits your life if the foundation of your very impressive and talented life is not built upon the Solid Foundation it will all be washed away in the wind and waves. In the end, your life is a beach house built on the sands of human wisdom. In the end, your life lacks the bedrock power of the living God. Christ s way works. Christ s way is not true because it works. Christ s way works because it is true. Because it is true, you can trust Him to reshape your life. The way that you begin to trust him is by saying every day, Today I am going to build the foundation of my life on Jesus Christ. Fellow strugglers hear what I say: Living the life of Christ may not look smart to you right now. But it will when the storms hit your life. And the storms will hit your life. This story states what should be obvious to us: A major crisis is eventually going to come into your life. If you think back to the words that I read of Jesus where he talked about the storm that hit, notice it hit both beach houses. It hit the beach house that had a foundation on Christ and the beach house that didn t. They both were blasted by the storm. Jesus said, The rain falls on the righteous and on the unrighteous. At some point in your life whatever belief system you have is going to be put to a big stress test by a storm that is going to hit. We call these Significant Events. It may be a career that all of a sudden crashes, an addiction run amok, a financial collapse, a serious car accident, a natural disaster, a downsized job, a marriage that fails, a missed promotion, a birth defect in a grandchild, a child s illness, a terrorist attack, the death of a friend or loved one, or bad news from your own medical test. 16

17 The longer you live you know it is inevitable: a crisis is going to come. If by some miracle you escape those kinds of crises throughout your life, you are going to face the ultimate storm someday: You are going to face death. In His beach house story Jesus was upfront about this. Whether you are a Christ-follower or not a Christ-follower, the storm is going to hit both beach houses. You are going to have trouble. The foundation you build your life upon is going to make all the difference in the world in how you weather storms. Do not wait until the last minute to try to scramble to lay a foundation when the storm hits. Just like in Jesus day when the storms would come across the Mediterranean Sea or the Sea of Galilee with unpredictable fury, you never know when the wind is going to start blowing. SOUL TEXT: What winds of adversity are blowing in your life right now? How s your house? Without struggle, there can be no progress. Frederick Douglas Each of us is either coming out of a storm, in the middle of a storm, or heading into a storm- with moments of respite and recover briefly in between. Again, that s not cynical, that s reality. Think about your most recent storm. Process that Significant Event and write down your answers to these two critical questions: 1. What was God possibly saying to me? 2. What am I doing to do about it? Decide today to do what you have to do to build a life that lasts forever, the beach house built on the rock that Christ desires to build with you. Enjoy the beach- but live on the Rock! 17