Dangerously Uncivilized

We start a brand new series today and it’s going to take us until the end of May. This was originally supposed to be an 8 week series that I’m condensing into four weeks because we have a lot of other things to cover and I felt like we had a lot of overlapping ideas and themes that can be folded into the four weeks I have. So starting this week be prepared to become dangerous. What I mean by dangerous, is infectious. Our problem is simply we have become too comfortable. Are you comfortable in your walk with Christ? If you are then you have to reconsider whether you are living the radically dangerous calling of a fully devoted follower of Christ. • 4/29 – Become Uncivilized, the first step into becoming dangerous is to become uncivilized. That is, we have to be marked apart. Made different. We have to be willing to stray away from societal norms and be called barbarous. We’re going to get into that in depth today. • 5/6 – Take Big Risks – next week, we’re going to learn what it means to take big risks and to seize divine boldness in our lives. • 5/13 – Have a Consuming Focus – The third part of being dangerous is to have a consuming focus. No more ADD nonsense. To be dangerous requires unshakeable devotion. • 5/20 – Lord, Make Us Dangerous! – Finally, before we go on our Memorial Day BBQ—a guide to apply everything in the first three weeks into our situations. 1In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” 4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. – Matthew 3:1-6 Vs 1 – Engage the wilderness I want to do something that I characteristically don’t do—I want to read our lives into the lines of Scripture that most evidently refer to somebody else. That is, I want to use this Scripture as a metaphorical lens by which we can see our lives. “In those days” – that is to say, “any day,” “John the Baptist,” here I want you to insert your name. “Came preaching in the wilderness.” The word we need to be aware of here is “wilderness.” When Matthew says “wilderness” here in this passage, he was not talking about an uninhabited desert, but a part of the country that stood in between cities and in between places. This is the key to our metaphorical lens by which we become dangerous. Basically, let me shape the paradigm for you—“On any day of the week, you (your name) comes to preach at the intersection of life where life and death hang in the balance.” You have to engage the wilderness. You have to meet and speak with people who are in between places. The first step to being dangerous is finding your place in between places. John the Baptist came preaching in the “wilderness.” His wilderness in particular was a spot that was surrounded by six cities. It was the crossroads that people travelled in between these six cities. He engaged the wilderness there. You, if you look at your life, are placed similarly in between places—Google calls them “circles” and facebook calls them “groups,” I just call them people who do go to church and people who don’t. You have to engage in the wilderness. Playing World of Warcraft is not engagement. Writing on other people’s facebook walls is not engagement. Let’s get that straight. Vs 2 – See the vision, know your goal When we want to be dangerous, we have to see the vision and the purpose for that vision. John had it simple, all he had to do was tell people that they’re going to be judged and condemned because Jesus is coming to be “king.” It’s one thing to preach; it’s a totally different thing to preach within the context of people’s lives and see a vision for them and for you and for you together and then set a goal towards that vision. Let me rewind. Preaching, is not talking down at. Preaching is engaging people to sell a vision and give them a goal to strive towards. When I preach to you guys on Sunday, it’s not about talking down at you and guilting you. I’m trying to sell you a vision and sometimes I know that vision is ethereal and abstract, but the hope is always that you get a glimpse and a taste of something extraordinary that you can strive towards. In verse three we see that this is what Isaiah was referring to when he prophesied what future preaching would be like, “a voice crying in the wilderness.” Giving people directions at a crossroads by which they can find a direction. We are called to be dangerous in this way. It is a two way danger. Our preaching can lead people to a dangerous death or our preaching can dangerously provide direction toward a place they can set their goals and set their sights on. Vs 4 – Be different, be who you came up to be If you wore camels hair back then, it was not nice. They didn’t wear camel’s hair—they wore linen. In a sense and in metaphoric terms he was uncivilized. He did not blend with society and with culture. He made his own. When you read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Tipping Point” he talks about this in economic theory. He says hipsters and trendsetters are who they are because they are willing to be themselves. Can I tell you what’s back in style these days? Yeah, the light up shoes. You know the shoes that light up when you walk that all the kids used to wear back in the mid-90s when things were weird. You thought life was weird when it was just dial up, but before that, our computer screens were green and black. You know how I know that? I know that because I was walking to a restaurant, trying to have dinner in the LES and I saw distinct groups of hipsters rocking ‘em shoes. They are willing to be different and show the world who they are and what their colors really are. But we have grown up in such a conformist society that it stifles who we are. We are taught who we should not be and definitely we should not be Hitler, but we should also not be the guy or girl who pretends to be somebody they aren’t. John the Baptist displayed this. Vs 5 – Wait and see The wait and see is the hardest part. We have to Just do these things that I just mentioned and wait to see what God does in our lives. The parable goes like this, “we may sow the seed but we are not the ones that grow it.” John did what he could do and then there was nothing else to do. I know nobody here ever started a business or even owned a business. But I’ve seen lemonade stands before. You set up lemonade stands and unfortunately because you’re one person, you have to sit at the stand that you set up and then you have to have wait for customers. But seriously, if you guys want to know about how to operate a business, these are the same types of principle and it’s in the Bible. Okay, I won’t do that. But seriously—if you want to open a business and be successful, it’s about location—you set up your distinct business and know what your business is about and don’t deviate from it and wait and see. I know I just simplified the MBA program for a lot of you who want to pursue a business degree, but that’s all they really teach you at that school. You can save your money and actually do business as opposed to studying about it. However, there is something that must be caveat that we can learn from the early church on what this means to wait and see as we preach the good news and give people a dangerous direction in their lives to become uncivilized. But to live in an uncivilized manner means that we have to adapt the mindset of selflessness. I’ll tell you why. It’s when we are selfish that we can’t wait and worse than not being able to wait, we can’t see past our noses to the things that are happening around us. It’s like being in a world of our own with no real bearing to real life. I mean, have you ever been so self-absorbed in your own project that you don’t know what time it is. Well, likewise, people are constantly meeting us out here in the crossroads looking for dangerous directions because life is so uncivilized and we can’t even take the time to stop and tell them where to go. That is a pity. Let’s look at Acts 2. 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. – Acts 2:42-47 My next four points, and I’ll try to do them in rapid succession, stem from my second point which is to see the vision and set the goal. Do you know what the vision is for this church. This community we have gathered ourselves in? I mean, this is the sole purpose for us gathering at this particular juncture. Let me remind you of what that is so as not to get you confused. This church will reach those who do not know Christ and bring them to an authentic relationship with Him by: § prayerful dependence on God § vibrant leadership § creating momentous worship experiences § living missionally in the community at large § building meaningful relationships § assisting to those in need in our communities That is the vision of the church. Our goal is to bring people who fall into one or more of these categories to and give them belonging with us: • you are turned off by organized religion • you are seeking God • you want to be in a community • you spend more time with people who don’t attend church • you disagree with the church’s political stance • you are lonely or alone • you felt or feel like church people are judgmental and hypocritical I mean, if you look at the church’s homepage, the first words you read in English and in Korean is this: “We have food, if you’re hungry. Guides, if you’re lost. First Aid, if you’re hurt. A roof, if you’re homeless. Whatever it is, we’re here for you. Come on in and make yourself at home.” If this is our corporate vision, because I can’t give you a vision for you own individual lives, and I know most of us don’t have one. So you can use our corporate vision as your personal vision and you can have the goal I just shared with you as your personal goal. I know how we love reading through the proverbs every day of the month. I decided I would see what that would be like this past month because somebody told me about how their parent would text them the proverb chapter of the day and I thought it to be peculiar and I encountered this proverb this morning as I was watching the sun come up: Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. – Proverbs 29:18. So now you have vision and a goal for your personal lives too – you’re welcome, don’t ever say that the pastor never gave you anything tangible to use for your life. Vs 44 – when people who believe in the same goal share everything Let’s look at verse 44. People who have the same vision and goal share their health and wealth. That’s right, when you are in a community of people who are walking dangerously with you, then you do something totally uncivilized in the Western notion of things: you open yourself to everybody with everything. Don’t be a hoarder! Don’t be conniving. I know some people are prone to it and all, but that’s a sign of having no vision and no goal. The goal isn’t wealth or advancement, unless that is your vision and your goal and by which case that’s rather visionless and unattainable. I’m not bashing people who have money or making money, I’m bashing what people are doing with it when they obtain it. When I say share everything, Luke is talking about material things, but I’m talking about things that have value to you Vs 45 – people meet the needs of others travelling with them at their own cost Verse 45, if you see a need and you don’t quite have what the person is looking for in need, go out of your way and at your own cost provide it. I’ll tell you what I hate most about modern American Christianity—it’s me first and you after I’m full mentality. It’s lame. See, people talk about self care and all that jazz about not having anything left to help others if you don’t first help yourself. Um… I don’t think they’re reading the same Bible I am. These people lived in dire poverty, greater than any of our most poor moments when we can’t buy that computer at Best Buy because we spent too much money on lunch this week, but come on man. They made do with less and worked harder in a week for that little than most of us will ever work in an entire year of working or ever have in our entire lives. They were selling at a cost to themselves and the funny thing is, they were not in need but they were filling other people’s needs. Engaging the wilderness costs something. We have to know that and see that. Vs 46 – be thankful I have to tell you, these days, I don’t know why, I actually do know why, but the children’s church is learning the same things we’re learning here as adults and they are going to be visionary Christ followers one day very soon and we’re going to have to be thankful. You see here in this case study, people are doing good and are sacrificing themselves but the best of all, they were being themselves. Wasn’t that point number 2? Be who you came up to be and be thankful for it because God will grant favor. Didn’t God grant Joseph favor when we talked about it this morning with the kids this morning? Yeah God did. This was even when Joseph in bad times, he was true to who he was and thanked God for it and God just blessed him, didn’t He? Vs 47 – Praise God Lastly, we have to praise God. We just have to praise God and we don’t do that enough. If you want to live a dangerous life, give God the credit to lead you there. This is totally uncivilized. If you didn’t understand what I meant about uncivilized, now you know—it is to stop doing what the world tells you that you should be doing and start bouncing to the rhythm set up for you by the life you were called to at your salvation. The question is really do you want to be comfortable and bored or do you want to live dangerously uncivilized and radically be who you know you were called to be? That’s your choice. Let’s pray.