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We've been settling for the false finish lines of comfort and control. We've been settling for false finish lines of politics and the economy. I have no faith in politics to bring us glory. That's not our finish line. In fact, filling up church buildings on a Sunday morning is a false finish line. But I have found over and over again, that it’s difficult, if not impossible to lean into new things without being done with the old things. So my question is Are we done with the old things? Are we ready to run to the true goal, the finish line of Christ?

I long to see the church shine bright like a city on a hill. I long for us to be known as the hands & heart of Christ. I still believe that the church that Jesus is building is the hope of the world. I want to be part of that church. But to be that church some old things need to die and get planted. What in you needs to die and get planted?
praying for that church to be done with old things.

What if God wants to do a new thing in our day, but he’s just waiting for us to give up some old things?

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John 12 is all about love-bursts. Mary had a love-burst, heart full for Jesus. We introduced that in the last episode. She left the table,...and got a small bottle out of her basket. It was full of a very valuable fragrant oil, worth a year's wages. What would that be for you? Put your number on it. Imagine pouring that out. She walks over to Jesus and uncorks the bottle. By now she has everyone's attention, they know what it is. She pours it out. Over his head and shoulders, his feet. And then she wipes off his feet with her hair.

This was the crazy generosity of a love-burst. The disciples thought it was too much. When is the last time you were crazy generous like that? The crazy generosity of a love-burst!

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John 12 starts on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. Jesus is at Lazarus' house. Yep same Lazarus that was recently dead, now living life large. Jesus is there and I'm telling you everyone wants to see Jesus, everyone wants to be on team Jesus. The crowds are going hard after Jesus. The next day is Palm Sunday, the processional of King Jesus into Jerusalem. The crowds continue to grow.

But at the heart of the Saturday before Palm Sunday is the love-burst of Mary...for Jesus. For 2000+ years this story has been told. It's how Mary is remembered? It makes me wonder how I will be remembered. Have you ever had a love-burst?

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In John 11, we get a whole new picture of Jesus. We see Jesus, standing near the tomb of his friend, pain and grief cascading over him. It's not simply the death of his friend that he rails against, it is the hand behind death. It is the power behind evil, this death symbolizes the accumulation of all that is wrong in the world. Evil, pain, sorrow and suffering, hopelessness, despair, injustice, cruelty, loneliness, and sin. He weeps for his friends, but he is deeply moved by the outrageous abnormality of what has become normal.

As he turns to the tomb, Christ comes face to face with messed up stuff that Father God never intended his children to face when he created us and called it good. He is stirred up in His spirit and shows his face as our champion!

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Isn’t there something in each of us that wants to believe that our stories matter? Sometimes we call that hope. We want to believe that we are living a good story, or perhaps even better yet, we want to believe that we are part of a good story. Yet, there are chapters where it seems like we are stuck in a bad news story. Right? In our culture today, we talk more than a bit about the good life. I live in Happy Valley. How could I live anything but the good life in a place called Happy Valley? But even in Happy Valley, we have bad news stories, right?

There is a question that Jesus asks in this story. The question first to Martha is simply, "Do you believe?" You understand the resurrection is not just something to believe in, it is someone to believe. What do you believe?

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In this series, “The Jesus Way" we are Listening to, learning from and leaning into the gospel of John; to get a better picture of what it looks like to be a Jesus-apprentice. And in this episode, we are finishing John chapter 10. But like the last episode, I’m going to start in John 10 but then wander a bit, all the way back to the Psalm 23. Why Psalm 23? Because there is a lot in John 10, about spiritual battle and a lot about Jesus being our great Shepherd. John 10 contains another one of Jesus “I am” statements. I am the great Shepherd.

And as I was reading John 10 through again, I kept thinking of Psalm 23, which is all about sheep, shepherds, and a crazy battle plan.

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The first problem we have in discovering our identity is that we simply don't know his voice. As my friend Terry says, "We need to develop voice recognition, because we don't recognize his voice." The problem is that we've let so many other voices into our souls. We let the voices that shout lies into our hearts and miss the voice that whispers truth. Ultimately our identity is shaped by the direction of our ears.

So in this episode we'll start in John 10, but we'll spend a little bit of time in Mark 4, where Jesus tells a story about listening and the power of listening to give us a life of great impact. If you want a life of 100x impact, you need to get good at listening for His voice!

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John of Kronstadt was a 19th-century Russian Orthodox priest at a time when alcohol abuse was rampant. None of the priests ventured out of their churches to help the people. But John, compelled by love, went out into the streets. People said he would lift the hungover, foul-smelling people from the gutter, cradle them in his arms, and say to them, "This is beneath your dignity. You were meant to house the fullness of God." You were meant to house the fullness of God but somehow, somewhere along the way they either never knew or they lost their identity. They had lost sight of who they were.

Who am I? Am I what I do? Am I what I wear? Am I how I fail? Am I what I achieve? Am I who you say I am? No really, who am I? That's the question for this episode.