Advent Week 3

 Good to see y'all. How's everybody doing? So good. So good. Happy. Third Sunday of Advent. Thus we lit the third candle. Today is the joy candle. So today our theme is Joy. You might have noticed we are going after Joy's serious business around here. And I'm gonna talk about the Lord's Prayer today, and it's gonna seem at first, like what I have to say, and joy don't necessarily line up.

Not that it's bad stuff, but I promise it'll get there. Okay. We're gonna have a real conversation about the middle section of the Lord's. And talk about some things that are real and heavy and good and important. But I promise all of this is for the sake of joy. So with that in mind, Jesus teaches us to pray and we're in this advent season, the season of waiting and longing.

We wanna learn how to pray, we wanna learn how to wait on our knees. And this is how Jesus teaches us to pray. This then is how you should pray. Matthew six, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be. On Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Over the last few weeks we've talked our last couple weeks, we've talked about the first sections. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done Today. I'm gonna camp out in this middle part, it's gonna be actually two parts that we'll see at the end, I think are actually really one thing, but we're talking about today is specifically.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors daily bread. I like this part of the prayer. I like this part. I don't like the second part. Okay, just fair warning. There are things in the Bible that I don't like. Anybody else with me on this one of these days, we're gonna do a sermon series called Things I Wish Jesus Didn't Say, and this second bit will be one of those things, but we'll start with the first part, which is good because it's where I get asked for the things that I feel like I.

And in prayer we actually have the opportunity to ask for the things we feel like we need or want. That's what's crazy here is there is in the middle of the Lord's Prayer a section that we call, if you wanna use the official language petition or we get ask for stuff. And it's really important that we pay attention to the fact that this is there because I've been a part of church circles and these are rarer these days, but a part of church circles where it's I need to get myself entirely out of the.

As if I'm this sort of this transparent thing that exists between heaven and Earth and I don't exist at all, and that's just not the case. The fact of the matter is Jesus invites us in the Lord's prayer to ask for the things we want. In fact, if you read in the Book of John, he says this, if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done.

I don't think Jesus is messing with us here. I don't think he's playing games with us. I don't think he's telling us that. You know what you have to really do is figure out what the father wants and then ask for that thing. No, he says ask for whatever you want. Now there's some caveats and we'll get to that in just a second.

This is not a name it and claimant. I want a Mercedes. Jesus give it to me. That's not what we're talking about here, but he does care about what we want. And about what we feel like we need, and we get to come to him and ask for daily bread. Jesus, I need things today. This is important. You are not just this transparent vessel.

You're not a nobody in the presence of God. So Keana reminded us last week. God wants to hear what you have to say. He wants to know what's actually going on in your life. He wants to know what you feel and what you think, even when those things are not necessarily things that you want to be feeling or.

That's what we learned from the Psalms. You guys read the Psalms recently, right? If you haven't read the Psalms, you're gonna have a hard time learning how to pray because the Psalms are how Jesus learned how to pray. This is Jesus prayer book. And what's crazy about the Psalms is all the stuff that the Psalmist talks about in there, it's just wild.

The things he prays about. He prays about anxiety and depression. He prays about fear. He prays about being angry with God. He prays sometimes about wondering if God's even there at. How crazy is that? I get to pray to God about God. Are you even real? He prays sometimes. Bad theology. He prays vengeance.

He prays all sorts of things because it's real. And here in the Lord's prayer, Jesus invites us to ask for what's on our hearts. This is important . You can bring your whole self into the presence of God. That's what prayer is. Bring your whole self into the presence of. That said , you knew there was a butt coming, didn't you?

But make sure you get the order right. First. Notice where, give us this day. Our daily bread falls in the whole order here after our father in heaven. Holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done. We have to get the order. You guys remember math, like elementary school math? You remember order of operations?

Yeah. Two plus two times two, right? Anybody with me? It's not eight is it? What is it? Six. Exactly. Cuz you have to do the multiplication first before you get to the edition. Anybody with me? Anybody just have like flashbacks of terrifying moments in your life. You hate this somebody, some of you are like, I don't remember that at all.

I have no idea what you're talking about. We'll talk after service, but the point is you have to get the order right or you get the wrong answer. And that's our problem often in prayer is we think, like I said a second ago, there are circles in which people tell you, just get yourself outta the way entirely.

And I'm saying that's not the right answer. On the other hand, there are unfortunately more and more circles these days where it's all about me and what I want, and we don't hold intention, these two realities. And the way to do that is to get the order. And start with what? Jesus starts with. Our Father.

Our Father. Now, as we talked about two weeks ago, that certainly does mean boldness. It means that I get to walk into the presence of God where angels fear to tread and ask for what I want. Like I'm talking to my dad. That's a big deal. The courtroom of heaven is your living room. The throne of God is your father's chair.

That's wild. So yes, we get to ask, but also remember who you're asking. You're asking a father, not a genie. We'll talk more about that in just a second. Our father in heaven. In Heaven, what does that mean? Perspective for as high as the heavens are above the earth. So your ways are higher than my ways.

In other words, God has a view that we don't see, and when we ask. We have to submit ourselves to his view because he's got a higher perspective. Just picture that visually. I'm walking this road and all I can see is to the next hill. But if God is thrown above the heavens in the earth, he sees well beyond and he's holy.

And yes, I get to charge into this place where angels fear to dread or fear to tread as a child as a son, as a daughter, at the same time. Though the courtroom of heaven is my living room. Let's not forget what our living room looks like, right? Revelation four at once I was in the spirit and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it, and the one who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Ruby.

A rainbow shown like an emerald encircled. The throne surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones, and seated on them were 24 elders, and they were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peels of thunder in front of the throne.

Seven lamps were blazing, and seven, these were the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne was what looked like a sea of glass. Clear as. This is where it gets real wild. In the center around the throne, there were four living creatures and they were covered with eyes. That goes back to the Old Testament.

There's a thing there, but I'm not gonna talk about it in front and behind, and the first living creature was like a lion. The second was like an ox. The third had a face like a man. The fourth was like a flying eagle, and each of the four living creatures, these terrifying beings that we would lose our minds if we saw, what are they doing?

Each of them had six wings covered with eyes all around, and even under its wings, day and night, they never stopped saying holy. is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is to come. And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders, these exalted beings above heaven and earth, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him, who lives forever, and they lay their crowns before the throne and say, you are worthy, our Lord and God to receive glory and honor.

Power for you created all things and by your will they were created and have their being. I just want to paint that picture. I know that's a long passage of scripture and it's bizarre and raises all sorts of questions for you, but the point is we need to walk in this balance. Do you see what I'm saying?

Yes. It's your living room, but don't forget what it looks like. Yes, he's your dad, but don't forget who he is and when you get that order it snaps our asking into perspective. because you don't walk into the a room of somebody like that and start saying, Hey, here's what I need you to do for me.

Kiana talked about this last week in, in, in an amazing message. If you haven't heard Kia's message, you need to go on our podcast and listen to it like right after this. As a matter of fact, if you wanna leave right now and do it, it's probably you. You wouldn't be a bad choice, but an amazing message where she talked about surrendering to the will of.

This idea here that the picture that, that John paints in Revelation, that the Holy Spirit paints is a king seated on a throne. This majestic, glorious king, like king of kings seated on this throne. And you don't just run into his presence and say, here's what I need you to do for me. How do you walk into a room like that?

Where the most terrifying things you've ever seen are crying out holy. Where the, these elders who are powerful and crowned with authority because of their accomplishments and their character are throwing their crowns at his feet. How do you walk into a room like that? You walk into a room like that and say, what are you doing and how can I be a part of it?

What do you want? Because, cause whatever you've got going is clearly better than anything I have. So who we're asking. Informs the asking Our Father in heaven, holy is your name, your kingdom come Jesus. Jesus teaches us to begin the Lord's prayer this way on purpose so that when we get to the petition part, we ask wisely.

We ask in way consistent of the one we're asking for, the one we're asking from. I. He teaches us to start with our father in heaven, to invite us into this holy space, this like space of awe and intimacy where we hold both of those things together. I am like thunderstruck, like I wanna fall on my face at the same time.

I wanna rush and jump on your lap. It's this there's just this weight that we should feel. Jesus doesn't teach us to start with our father in heaven, for God's sake. We're not reminding God who he is. Hey God, you're our dad. Don't. Hey, you're up in heaven. In case you didn't realize what, no he's teaching us to say it, to, to pray that way for our sake, so we remember who we're talking to.

So when we say those words, there's this weight that just sinks over us. Oh, yeah. I forgot. In the chaos and crush of my life, just the rush of day-to-day pace. I forgot in whose presence I'm. I have a father in heaven who loves me and is for me, but he's holy and he's majestic.

And just like I, I just got this really weird visual out of a movie. You guys ever seen the movie National Treasure? Yeah. Great movie, right? Every time I talk about it, I just wanna go and watch it. Just fantastic. But you know that scene where they steal the Declaration of Independence and then they take it to Philadelphia to like Liberty Hall where it was signed and he unrolls it and they're trying to find the treasure map on it, and he just stops for a second.

Everybody's what's wrong? And he just takes this breath and he goes, Do you real? I wish I could do a Nicholas Cage. Do you realize that the last time this document was in this room, it was being signed? You guys remember that moment and everybody's whoa, that's so heavy. That's it though. More than that, like when you enter into prayer and you say the words, our father who art in heaven, holy is your name.

Does that does something just ease into you of oh my goodness. I can't believe it. I can't believe who I'm talking to right now. You see your kingdom come, your will be done like, like I'm standing in the presence of the king

and now I have some stuff I want to talk about. . I have some stuff I feel like I need. Do you see how the whole temperature of the room has just changed? The whole temperature of my prayer has just changed. When I start with who he is, that's why the most important thing, the most important thing we do in this place is remind one another of who God is.

Everything else flows out of that. This is not a place for us to figure out primarily who we are. Okay. And this is one of the most countercultural things I can say, because most everybody out there is gonna tell you that the best thing you can do is figure out who you are. Find your voice, find what you're passionate about, your interests, your ambitions, your dreams.

And I'm gonna tell you, no nonsense. Start with God, start with who he is, and you'll get the rest of it thrown into the mix. , you'll find yourself, you'll find relational shalom peace. You'll find your vocation, your identity, your purpose, all of these things. But if you start with yourself, it all falls apart.

That's what Jesus says, right? Save your life and you lose it. Lose your life for my sake. And you find it. We start with God and then we find ourselves, and that's how this whole thing works. And with that in mind, Give us this day, our daily bread, Jesus, we have things we need. Give us what we need. I'd like to talk to you about that.

But when we hold the picture of who God is first, then what happens to Daily Bread? Who asks in the first place? And along those like those terms, who is it? Who do you know that's asking give me daily bread. If you just think about it in, even in like literal, . Do you know anybody who each day wakes up in the morning and says, I hope I have fu de today.

Who asks like this? Soldiers do. And you guys, if you've been around me I get a little hesitant about military metaphors in church. There have been too many of them over the years, but for the sake of today, soldiers and citizens living during something big daily bread is what it's ration.

That's how we would say it in English. I know we, it doesn't sound nice to say it, but when Jesus says it here, he's saying, give us our rations for the day. And who relies on rations? People who are part of something bigger. Do you know what I mean? Like rations are for soldiers and citizens living through wartime, living through crisis, living through something that's a much bigger picture than my daily life and happiness.

In other words, people who have surrendered their will to a purpose higher than their own, a soldier or a citizen living through wartime recognizes that, yeah, maybe I have dreams and ambitions and things that I'd want to be a part of, but there is a bigger picture happening here, and that bigger picture is far more significant and far more meaningful than anything I have going on in this moment.

And so I lay down myself. For the sake of this bigger picture, and what's that bigger picture? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, what Jesus teaches us to pray here, in light of that, if your kingdom is coming and your will is going to be done, if it's coming and it's gonna be done and I want it to come through me, I wanna be an answer to that prayer, then what Daily Bread is give me everything I need to do whatever you're asking me to do.

That's how he teaches us to pray. Give me anything I need to do Everything you're asking me to do today, who prays for Daily Bread, someone who has sacrificed their will for the will of the father. This is what it means to take up our cross daily, someone who knows whose boat they're in. You guys have heard me say this if you've been around Canopy before, but one of the most misunderstood stories in the Bible is the calming of the.

You guys remember that story cuz the way we traditionally preach it is the disciples are out in the boat in the middle of the lake. Jesus is in the back of the boat sleeping. They're rowing their boat across the lake. This storm comes up and they freak out and they ask Jesus to calm the wind in the wave.

They ask him to do something. He calms the wind in the waves and they sail on through this calm sea with all the ease in the world. And the moral of that story we often hear is if you're in the middle of a storm. Your boat is rocking back and forth, and you're taking on water. Then what do you do?

You pray and Jesus will calm the storm. What's the problem with that? We've forgotten the whole point of the story. They were out in the middle of the lake because Jesus put them there.

It wasn't their boat. It was his. He was sitting in the captain's seat. That's where he fell asleep. He literally fell asleep at the wheel. Have you ever been there? The wind and the waves come to swamp the boat and the disciples are having a hard time rowing to where Jesus was going, not where they were going.

They had no desire. If you remember, there was a revival happening on the shore. They had just left. They were about to be famous. Thousands of people were gathered on the shore. They had no desire to leave. Jesus told them, let's go across the sea. In the middle of the night in a coming on storm to the Gentile side of town.

They had no desire to be out there. They were out there because Jesus was going Some. . And the reason Jesus calmed the wind in the waves is because they weren't strong enough to get him through it. , okay? I'm not saying that it's not about us being strong enough, but the point is, if they had been able to row on, I think Jesus would've kept sleeping.

He calmed the wind in the waves because it got in his way,

cuz it's his boat. We just get that, we get that picture so wrong. He's in charge. He's calling the shots.

So when we pray for daily bread, what we're asking is, Jesus I want to be a part of what you're doing in the world like I do because the kingdom of God is breaking out and it's better than anything else I have going. I want to be a part of it, but it's hard for me because it's hard out there and it's hard in here.

And I'm gonna need some help. I'm gonna need some resource. I'm gonna need some rations to sustain me today so I can be a part of what you're doing. And here's the good news. He will always give you every resource you need

so you can fulfill his plan for your life. He will never deny you daily bread. If your heart's desire is to seek first his kingdom, you'll get everything you need to do, everything he's asking you to do.

What does that mean about Daily Bread? It means it's not gonna look like what we're gonna expect it to look like all the time. Okay. daily Bread, that language actually goes back to the Book of Exodus. You guys remember that? People of God on their wilderness and they think that they're gonna die.

They've, they're just a few days out of Egypt and they're already freaking out. They think they're gonna die. God, you let us out here. We don't have any food. It's amazing how. People fall apart when they don't have food. This is why we feed you so much at Canopy. Just wanna make sure that we're all heading the same direction, but they start to fall apart and God says, look, we're not going back to Egypt.

As a matter of fact, there's this beautiful moment where he says, turn and face the wilderness. And it says, the glory of God appeared farther out into the wilderness. It's no, the glory is out here. You're gonna come this way, but I'll provide for you. I'll provide for you. He says, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you bread to eat from.

He says go, they go out the next morning and the ground is covered with this like flaky white stuff. They're, I don't know what they're expecting. I'm gonna give you bread to eat from heaven. They're expecting like sourdough to be like, falling from this guy. That's what I would be, that's what I'd be looking for.

Gluten free, huh? But they go out and there's this flaky white stuff all over the ground and they figure that God says it would rain bread from heaven. So maybe this is it. Pick up these little wafer things and they taste them and they're sweet like honey, and they're satisfying and they fill, but they have no idea.

This is not what they're expecting. And what do they call it? Manna. Does anybody know what manna means? What is it? They literally name their food. What is it?

Anybody ever felt like that? When God's given you what you need for the day, what in the world? This is not what I asked for. I guess it'll work. It's not what I asked for. But remember, we hold this request for daily bread in light of what our father,

what do you call a dad who gives their kids whatever they want? Lousy. Dad. You guys ever seen or read Lord of the Flies? This is what my house would be if I gave my son whatever he wanted. If we just said whatever you want. The whole yes day premise for 24 hours, whatever you want is yours.

We would have no house by the end of the day, . He would be on this like massive sugar high from morning tonight and everything would be torn apart. And this is the way it is. And I'm not calling Mark out cuz she's in the room, but the same thing would happen with her. Okay. But you get the idea. The worst thing you can give a kid is everything they ask.

And good fathers know that good parents know that

a good father gives their kid what they would've asked for if they knew what they were talking about if they had any clue. And this is where that perspective thing comes in. If they had any clue what they really needed, what they would've asked for we don't have a genie. Who grants our wishes.

We have a father who knows what's good, and he gives us everything we'll need.

The question is, do we trust him enough to ask him this way? This is the question that Keanu raised for us last week, and it's been a question that's been haunting me all week. Do I trust him enough to surrender my will to his kingdom? That's what it is. It's daily waking up and saying, your kingdom over mine.

Do I trust him? And that's what daily bread's all about too, isn't it? Because that story in Exodus about daily bread, it's, it is literally daily bread. They go out and there's bread on the ground and Moses led by God tells them, here's how this is gonna work. You're gonna go out and you're gonna collect just what you need for the day.

Do not collect more. He says specifically, don't collect extra, just what you need for the day. And what's so wild about it is what do. . They collect extra. And what do they find the next day? As the leftover has rotted, it's got maggots crawling in it. How gross is this? It's rotted and Moses gets all mad at him, but he says, look, it's daily bread.

You get a little bit each day. Enough for the day. Now why? Because daily bread's about justice. This is not gonna be the main point, but this is really, I. Look, if everybody goes out and collects what they need for the day, then everyone is well fed. But if everybody gets to go out and collect whatever they want, then what's gonna happen?

Then the strong and the capable are gonna take more, and the weak and the disadvantage are gonna get less. Eventually what's gonna happen is the strong and the capable are gonna be well fed and the weak and the disadvantage are gonna get less and suddenly the gap, the chasm between the two of them will grow.

But don't worry, because the magnanimous strong and capable are going to go ahead and provide loans to the weaken the disadvantage so that they can get some of the extra red the leftover stuff at reasonable interest rates. This is about justice. You go out, you take what you need, and everybody gets what they need and everybody gets the same portion and is fed well.

It's a different conversation for a different day. Daily bread's about justice, but it's about grace. This is the point. Whoa. Could you try, Siri just started talking to me. I don't know it. I didn't say Siri. It's about grace because here's the thing, and this coincides with the justice conversation.

The stuff we have, we don't have, because we're awesome. We don't ca have because we're super capable or super smarter because we necessarily worked hard. Now, there's nothing wrong with hard work. There's nothing wrong with intelligence. There's nothing wrong with vision and talent and all these things, but like where does it all come from?

I run across people who are wealthy and they think they're wealthy because they're smarter than everybody else, or they worked harder than everybody else, and maybe they have worked hard, but the fact of the matter is, You were born into a situation where you were able to do that. You were given the intelligence you were given the intelligence you were given the capacity to work hard.

You were born into the family you were born into, which, whether that was to your negative or positive, you were given the Constitution that you have to do that. Everything's a gift. When we live a daily bread mentality it makes us recognize that look. Thing. I have every scent, every emotional I put in my mouth comes from the hand of God, and were it not for his grace, I would cease to exist.

He sustains me daily

and when you have to go, when you put yourself in that place where he says, don't take extra or it will rotten your hand, you recognize that every time you eat, it's a gift. I didn't do anything to earn this. I just walked out and it was on the ground. My friends, that's our whole lives. Let's be realistic.

We didn't do anything to earn this. We just walked out and God made a world for us to live in. Now is hard work important? Yes. Yes, by all means, but let's hold it in perspective. See, I've been places in the world where people, they work hard and their hard work does nothing for them. I've met people who pray this prayer literally every day.

Daily Bread is not figurative, it's literal. It's, I don't know where the next meal's gonna come from.

I , and you know what I found in those places? They experience the presence of God in ways that I can't even begin to imagine. They experience grace in the most radical of ways. I'm not trying to glorify poverty, but I am trying to glorify radical trust. This, like I'm putting myself in a position of dependence, a position of need where Holy Spirit, if you don't show up for me today, I am just sunk.

I've had this conversation with some of you in this room, students from Vanguard with our young adults here at Canopy of Moses, holding the staff above his head as he's getting ready to part the Red Sea. You guys remember that picture? I just want you to have that picture burned in your minds cuz it's so compelling cuz he, what's happening is there's an army waiting to kill them and in front of them is this unpassable body of water completely stuck.

And God says, don't worry, I got you. Go hit the water with your. That's the strategy. , this is how I'm gonna save you. Go hit the water with your stick. And Moses being a man of faith and trust, he walks out there, he gets his feet into the water cuz your your feet are gonna get wet before the water's part, okay?

Gets your feet into the water and he lifts the stick above his head. And what is going through his mind? Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. , right? Because if this doesn't work, we're dead. If you don't show up, Lord, we're sun. Friends. I want that to be our strategy for building a church. By the way, if you don't show up, we've got nothing.

Yeah. The presence of God is everything here, and it's true for you too.

The people that live this way are always the ones who experience the most compelling and powerful presence of God in their lives. Always. So do you want to see God at work in your life? Then make yourself dependent on grace on daily bread. This is gonna happen eventually, whether you want to or not, by the way.

Eventually the wheels fall off, okay?

There's no surprise that many of us, when we find ourselves in these dark seasons of life, say, I experience God like I never have before. Why? Because you're eating right from his hand, like just day in and day out. If you don't show up, I can't get outta bed today. You're just eating right from his hand.

I wanna suggest though, you don't have to wait for the wheels to fall off. You can cultivate in your lives, disciplines of dependence and humility now that make you reliant on grace so that you experience the profound presence of God without crisis. . And then when crisis comes, you're twice as ready.

Daily. Bread's all about trust. It's all about trust. It's trusting that when I wake up in the morning, there's gonna be manna, there's gonna be, what is it on the ground?

I didn't work for it. I didn't earn it. I just slept literally while I was asleep doing nothing. The world kept spinning. The sun rose. The grass crew and what is it? Fell on the ground. I didn't do anything. But you have to trust. You have to trust enough not to hoard. You have to trust enough not to try to take matters into your own hands and instead eat from the hand of God.

It's about trust

and then we get to the part I don't like. That was the part I like. You're thinking what's the part you don't like? Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debt. As we have forgiven our debtors. Now, what Jesus seems to be saying here is tough, isn't it? Because he seems to be saying that you will experience from God the same measure of forgiveness that you're willing to extend to somebody else.

He asks us to pray that way. God forgive me my debts to the same degree that I have forgiven other people. No. Jesus. How about I pray this way? Jesus, forgive me. My debts like way more than I forgive everybody else. And this bothers me, especially bothers me if I'd gone on to read the rest of the passage, but I didn't because it's things you, I wish Jesus didn't say, right?

Cuz he goes on to say, your heavenly Father will not forgive you your sins if you don't forgive your brother from your heart. And we look at this and we say what I thought God was all about forgiveness. I thought he was all about grace. And here it seems like it's Condit. , I thought God was this endless fountain of forgiveness, and now here it seems like it's conditioned based upon my forgiveness of others.

Is that correct? Yes and no. Yes and no. It seems like it is, and I'm still wrestling with this myself, you guys, , I don't come up here as an expert, but as somebody who's just walking through this with you, all right? It is conditional, but the only question is where does the condition lie? In other words, on whose side is the responsibility here?

What I mean is who is our receiving of forgiveness? Dependent on God or us, is the issue that God is withholding from us or that we're simply not receptive?

See, the picture that we have here is that there is in fact an endless fountain, an ocean of forgiveness available, but that we come with nothing to drink out of. You know the ocean is there. The question is, how big is your glass? How much of it do you want? The question is not will God forgive, but will I receive his forgiveness?

Do we believe actually that forgiveness works? Cuz that's what it comes down to. Forgiveness is not simply an action, it's a worldview, it's a strategy. Forgiveness is Jesus' strategy for winning at life. Okay. It's in fact bigger than that. It's Jesus' strategy for conquering the. Because here's the picture that we've had for centuries, for millennia.

Now, as we have this picture of people fighting for what they want and when somebody gets in the way of what they want, we react with payback, with vengeance, with retribution, we conquer, we preemptively strike to avoid other people taking from us. We build our territories and our walls and our boundaries and our borders to keep other people from having what we have, from taking from us.

And when somebody does take from us, I fight back violently. I take revenge. I expect payment in return for what was lost, retribution. And when Most of us think of justice, by the way, this is what we think of retributive justice. Someone has done something wrong. There is now a debt owed. And in a broken world, this is an important thing.

I'm not saying it's not, but that wasn't Jesus' strategy. Notice. What was Jesus's strategy for winning at life? The way he died shows the whole picture. He was accused wrongly, and he stood there and didn't say a word in his own defense he could have. Do you know how easily Jesus could have won the trial with Pontius pilot?

How like PIL actually wanted to let him go , but he didn't answer the accusations. He didn't fight back, and this led. To the cross, whereas he's hanging on the cross. People are saying to him, if you are the son of God, then call down legions of angels. You guys, Jesus conquered the world without ever leading an army.

Though he had armies at his disposal to lead

Jesus strategy for conquering the world was dying, not killing, not retribution, not revenge, not con quests. Sacrifice and get this. And while he was dying, he was actively forgiving the people who were killing him. In the moment it happened, you guys, do you realize how long it takes me to forgive somebody?

Sometimes when they've really hurt me, it's years and Jesus is doing it in the moment. Because that's the law of his life. Forgiveness is his strategy. It's his worldview. It's the lens that he views things through. I got to hang with a friend last week who's a minister in India, a guy named SSH Kumar.

You guys will get to see him sometime soon, hopefully. He's a dear friend and he's got this great way of preaching the gospel to Hindus. He simply says this, you live on this system where what you do gets paid back to. We call the system karma. If you wanna understand Jesus all he says is this.

He says, Jesus changes karma. You don't get what you deserve anymore. You get what he deserved while he gets what we deserve. That's how the cross works. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God.

And this is his strategy. This is his worldview. This is his law. It's a law of forgiveness. Now, If we are unable to forgive those in our life who have harmed us, we show that we're no long, we're not living under that law, and if we're not living under it, how can we possibly receive it? And this hurts you guys.

This is like real time for me, this hurts. This is hard,

but there's two things we gotta know about this forgiving of our debts thing. The first one is our king tells us to. And what do you do when your king tells you to do something?

You just get on your knees because he's the king. You see your kingdom over mine. Your kingdom come, you will be done. Okay. But more than that, more than just being told what to do, he's telling us, look, I've got a better way. The way that this has been working for the better part of the history of the world does not work.

Revenge and retribution will not get you what you want. It will not help you to win at life. In fact, it's damaging you. You think it's damaging somebody else, but it's damaging you. There's this famous saying, somebody once said that unforgiveness is, Dre is like drinking poison, expecting the other person to die.

No. It's crushing us. It's killing us. It's keeping us from experience, experiencing joy. And he says, if you wanna receive it for me, it's there. It's available. There is an ocean, but show up with a jug to drink. Show up, receptive and available, and buy into the system. Buy into the worldview. Submit yourself to the law of forgiveness.

Leave behind the law of vengeance and conquest and retribution, and instead find yourself under the law of grace. And the way you do that is by extending it to other people, and when you do, you become receptive yourself.

Real quick, I'm wrapping up. I promise whenever I talk about this, I always wanna give a couple caveats, okay? I wanna tell you what, for forgiveness is not. Forgiveness is not necessarily forgetfulness. It doesn't mean that you have to pretend like nothing happened. Forgiveness is not being repeatedly abused, okay?

It's not being walked all over. It's not keeping yourself in a situation where you're being harmed actively. Sometimes you forgive from a distance and that. Sometimes that distance just needs to stay. Forgiveness is not necessarily reconciliation. Reconciliation is a higher call, and it's not for everybody because reconciliation requires both parties to be able to come to the table and acknowledge what actually happened.

And if you're in a situation where someone has hurt you and they are not safe or able to come to the table, you do not need to reconcile with him, but your king is inviting you to.

What is forgiveness? It's releasing a debt. See, that's the thing. There's been a debt incurred against you. Somebody legitimately harmed you took something from you, and whenever there's a debt, there always has to be payback. Now, here's the thing. When we live under the law of retribution, revenge, what are we doing?

We're expecting the other person to pay us back when we live under the law of forgiveness. It doesn't mean it doesn't have to be paid back. It means who has to pay that. we do. This is why it sucks . This is why it hurts, because now I'm paying a debt that was incurred against me

and now here's where it ties into daily bread. How can I do that?

By trusting that my father will give me everything I need to do, everything he's asking me to do.

When I pay this debt myself, though it hurts. He will show up with what was lost and more that his grace will be sufficient for me

and that I'll be okay. Daily bread is about radical trust, but so is forgiveness. It's radical trust that my father is gonna love me well, and that in his presence is fullness of. And abundance in everything I need. It's trust that the Holy God who dwells in heaven knows what he's doing. It's trust that the king is good.

And friends, I feel like there's a weight in the room. Maybe it's just me, but this weight has been on my shoulders all week as I've been praying through and preparing this. But you see all of this stuff, this reliance, this radical trust, this putting myself, my kingdom under his, submitting my will to his own, remembering who I'm talking to, all of this, it's hard, but it's the secret to joy cuz here's the deal.

His kingdom is better than ours.

His kingdom is about the restoration of the world and all things being made new. His kingdom is about profound impact for your life for your life, to matter more than you ever thought was possible. More than you ever dreamed it could for you to be a an ambassador of reconciliation and hope and restoration in this.

That's what he wants to do. He wants to give us abundant life and overflowing joy. He's not, he, when I, that's why I hesitate to use these soldier and wartime citizen analogies because it's all like doom and gloom, but that's not the picture. The picture is the kingdom of God is breaking out and you get to be a part of it if you leave behind your little kingdom of sandcastles and mud puddles.

Okay, let's pray.