Well, my name is Greg. If we've never met, I
would love to meet you. Now is the time of the
service where we draw attention to praying for
our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is called
Greenbush. It is directly south of us. We've
broken it into 26 different blocks. I think there's
a, there we go, 26 different blocks. And then
on the back wall, it says prayer for Greenbush.
And each of those, that bottom row tells you
what the different borders are of each of the
26 regions. So if you're ever just like, oh,
hey, I want to go drive around or walk around
a spot after service today. We're going to do
something special in the lobby, but then you'll
also have the option of going on a prayer walk
if you'd like to. But we invite different people
up every week to pray for Greenbush because we
all have different things that are on our hearts,
different things that we remember to pray about.
And so we please welcome Marissa Cantu to pray
for Greenbush. I was trying to come in like I
was at a boxing event. The crowd goes wild. All
right. Well, we get the honor of praying for
our community. And I am praying for blocks 5
1⁄2 to 6th Avenue and 28th Street to about 30th
Street. And it's right at the light over here,
so it's literally you could walk over there.
It's a block over and like the three blocks that
way. A big Catholic church kind of surrounds
the area. There's a couple of Midwest Motors
right on 38th Street. And so then the rest of
it is just neighborhoods. And I do pray that
you get to go on a walk there. And as I was looking
at different ways to pray for our neighborhood
and blocks, there was this thing that I came
across online that's called Bless. So if we want
to bless our neighborhoods, it's praying for
their physical bodies, that they have good health.
praying for labor and work, praying for their
emotional well -being, their social wellness,
and their spiritual wellness. So that's something
super easy. It's called BLESS. Body, labor, emotional,
social, and spiritual well -being. And so just
join me as we pray for our block and our neighborhood
as a congregation and also pray that we be the
hands and feet to ever provide if there's a need.
Father God, we just... Pray for our community
that you've placed right across the street from
us. I lift up our neighbors, asking for your
peace to fill their homes and for safety in that
community. I pray that you bless their work,
strengthen their physical bodies. I pray for
their families, that you provide for their needs.
Help us to be a beacon of light in this community.
Help us to be kind. and supportive and compassionate
as a body of Christ. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. All right, like I said, good morning. My
name's Greg. If we've never met, we'd love to
meet you. Buy you a coffee sometime if you're
down for coffee or a soda. Whatever you enjoy,
we'd love to talk to you, get to know you a little
bit. We are in our third week of a series that
we're calling Control Alt Delight. I'm guessing
that most of us have used a computer. Some of
us might even use computers on a daily basis.
I remember, gosh, the first computer that I owned,
my grandmother helped me buy it. It was in my
dorm room at Judson College, now Judson University.
I remember the first laptop I bought myself.
I was working at Lone Star Steakhouse as a server,
you know? Anyone? Peanuts on the floor. I think
they were the peanuts on the floor originator,
maybe. But it was up near Chicago, off Randall
Road. And I made enough that I paid $1 ,400 for
a 10 -inch screen, a Toshiba satellite. It was
pretty sweet. Now, it's amazing to think about
how much computers cost now by comparison, because
that little thing was barely bigger than this.
And it cost, yeah, that's a ridiculous amount
of money to spend on something that did almost
nothing. But I'm guessing that most of us that
use computers have also had something freeze
up on us, and we've had to figure out how to
get it to stop being frozen. And at least on
a PC, one of the main things that you can do
is hit Control, Alt, Delete. We're talking about
this because for a lot of people, there's something
inside of Christianity in the formatting of the
faith that feels controlling, that feels like
it is freezing things up, and like it needs to
be deleted. So let's talk about it. A couple
weeks ago, we started with the topic of money,
how churches and religion can be controlling
about our finances, but God isn't trying to control
our money. God is asking us to be responsible
for our... own finances. That's all that churches
should ask, that whatever you've decided after
prayer and in your mind, that is what you are
committed to, not something that a church twists
your arm into giving. Pray, think, give. That's
it. Last week, Pastor Jen talked about relationships,
that the marriage isn't the only path. Sometimes
I think historically, people, churches have kind
of set it up like, oh, you have to be married
and you have to be in this kind of marriage.
But framing marriage, as the only choice diminishes
all the other kinds of relationships that we
have. There's a kind of belonging that we can
experience no matter what relationship path we
choose. Next week, we're going to talk about
letting go of the way that guilt and shame get
used to control us. But today, we're going to
talk about the afterlife. All right, so way back.
Way back before I was born, because as old as
I have gotten, I'm still not that old. 1973,
there was a movie called A Thief in the Night.
Show of hands if you've heard of A Thief in the
Night, the movie. Yes, okay. So we're talking
Midwest people over here, people that grew up
in the church. And this film was entireed on
location in Iowa, less than three hours from
here. So I don't know if maybe that's part of
the reason that some of us that grew up in the
church around here had heard of it, but it was
filmed near Des Moines. And I'm going to, oh,
you were in for a treat. I'm going to read to
you the entire Wikipedia plot synopsis of A Thief
in the Night. Everyone ready? Patty Myers awakens
to a radio broadcast announcing the disappearance
of millions around the world. The radio announcer
suggests that this might be the rapture of the
church spoken of in the Bible. Patty, a member
of a liberal church, finds that her husband,
a born -again Christian, has also disappeared.
The United Nations sets up an emergency government
system called the United Nations Imperium of
Total Emergency, or UNITE, and declares that
anyone who does not receive the mark of the beast,
identifying them as with UNITE, will be arrested.
Several flashbacks occur to times in Patty's
life before the rapture. The story begins with
Patty and her two friends who... All have different
destinies. Her friend Jenny considers Jesus Christ
her savior. Her other friend Diane is more worldly
minded. Patty considers herself a Christian because
she occasionally reads the Bible and goes to
church regularly. However, her pastor is shown
to be an unbeliever. She refuses to believe the
warnings of her friends and families that she
will go through the great tribulation if she
does not put her faith. In Christ. Meanwhile,
her husband has been attending another church
and has accepted Jesus. The next morning, Patty
awakens to find that her husband and millions
of others have suddenly disappeared. Patty's
conflicted. She refuses to trust Christ, yet
she also refuses to take the mark. She desperately
tries to avoid Unite and the mark, but is eventually
captured. She escapes. Remember, this is being
filmed near Des Moines. She escapes. But after
a chase, she is cornered by Unite on a bridge
and falls from the bridge to her death. Patty
awakens and realizes it has all been a dream.
She's relieved. But her relief is short -lived
when the radio announces that millions of people
have in fact disappeared. Horrified, Patty practically
searches for her husband, only to find he is
missing too. Patty realizes that the rapture
has actually occurred and she has been left.
You know the next word, right? Behind. I don't
think that I could exaggerate just how obsessed
so much of the American church was with the concept
of the rapture and tribulation for about 30 or
40 years. The concept was mostly formulated by
a guy, well, actually completely formulated and
then adopted by others, but formulated by a guy
named John Darby in the 1830s and 1840s. 70 years
later. In 1909, one of the most popular Bibles,
the Schofield Reference Bible, included Darby's
idea about the rapture and the tribulation, not
just in a side commentary, but in the Bible next
to the scriptures. In the 1920s, the Dallas Theological
Seminary started teaching generations of pastors
about... The rapture. In 1957, the president
of the seminary wrote a book called The Rapture
Question, but it was less of a question and more
of a conclusion. 20 years later, in 1978, Charles
Ryrie, and I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it,
R -Y -R -I -E, Ryrie, a strong believer in the
rapture and author of a book called Dispensational
Today, also included these ideas in his published
study Bible. shaping sermons preached in pulpits.
But it wasn't only in the pulpit. In 1970, a
man named Hal Lindsey wrote a book called The
Late Great Planet Earth, and it sold 10 million
copies in the first 10 years, 30 million total.
The idea of a rapture, of millions of people
being snatched up, became a part of American
church culture. But not just American church
culture, it became a part of social consciousness.
Fast forward to 1995, and the first of the Left
Behind books was published. The series would
go on to sell 80 million copies, including movies
and merchandise. We're talking about $1 .5 billion
in revenue. So how does one unweave an idea that
has been so purposefully sewn into the fabric
of our modern Christianity? Because today's scholars
and theologians have broadly discredited Darby's
ideas, not because we don't believe that Jesus
is going to return, but because the concept of
the rapture is a hodgepodge of verses that didn't
belong together. It's a conspiracy that sells
because nothing sells like Fear. So let's talk
about deleting a bad idea and delighting in the
Lord. Let's open up our Bibles. We're going to
Luke 13. Luke 13 is in what's called the New
Testament. It goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
Acts. If you don't have a Bible, there's blue
ones on the table, and you can take one from
the bookshelf out in the lobby home if you'd
like it. Otherwise, download one from any of
the digital app stores. We're going to be in
Luke chapter 13, and we have a tradition when
the scriptures are read in the context of the
sermon to give it our full attention. You can
do that any way you see fit, but if you'd like
to stand with me as you are able, you are welcome.
This is Luke 13, starting with verse 22. 13,
22. Jesus went through one town and village after
another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.
And someone asked him, Lord, will only a few
be saved? And he said to them, strive to enter
through the narrow door. For many, I tell you,
will try to enter and will not be able. Once
the owner of the house has got up and shut the
door and you begin to stand outside and to knock
at the door saying, Lord, open to us. Then in
reply, he will say to you, I do not know where
you came from. Then you will begin to say, We
ate and drank with you, and you taught in our
streets. But he will say to you, I do not know
where you came from. Go away from me, all you
evildoers. There will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and
you yourselves thrown out. Then people will come
from east and west, from north and south, and
take their places at the banquet in the kingdom
of God. Indeed, some are last who will be first.
Some are first, who will be last. Let us pray.
God of every tribe, every tongue, every color,
every nation, we thank you for the scriptures
that we still have them to read, that they have
persisted throughout the millennia. And I pray
that whatever we have to learn today, that you
would make it stick, that our faith would become
stronger, as we become more like your son, Jesus.
In your name. Amen. Thanks, y 'all. You can have
a seat. All right, so the first question that
we should ask is, what do they mean by saved?
When these Israelites come to Jesus, their brother
in nationality and ethnicity and location, and
said, will many be saved or only a few? What
do they mean by saved? First of all, in the Jewish
context, they're not talking. about heaven and
hell the way that much of modern Christianity
has described it, okay? They had a concept of
the afterlife, but it wasn't what modern Christians
might imagine. They're not talking about pearly
gates or the fires of hell, but they are thinking
of a kingdom that would last forever, that was
eternal. They're also thinking of how that kingdom
might begin now. how there might be something
that happens here on earth, that a Messiah might
come and overthrow the powers of this earth.
And they're asking whether later or now will
we all be in or will only a few be a part of
that kingdom. So this passage is kind of a two
-in -one. They're asking about eternity, but
they're also asking about today. Either way...
This is the pill that's hard to swallow. His
answer isn't easy to hear. There's not a lot
of comfort that he offers to them in that moment
when he gives the answer because he doesn't say
all of you automatically will experience that.
Actually, he warns them that they could end up
standing outside and seeing people that aren't
even a part of Israel welcomed in. It says from
the east and west, north and south. In other
words, what is that saying? Everywhere. Everyone
from everywhere is going to come here to be a
part of this kingdom. Now, each of the gospel
writers tend to have a theme that they're trying
to communicate. We didn't read from Matthew,
but in Matthew, Matthew's theme is this idea
that there is this diaspora, that there are tribes
of Israelites that have not yet come back and
experienced being part. of the homeland again.
And Matthew goes to great extents to show that
Jesus cares about these people that are lost,
that he has come first for the Israelite, he
says, and then for everybody else. But in Luke,
Luke's message, he writes it much later. Luke
is actually commissioned by someone that's probably
not Jewish to write the book of Luke. And so
Luke's emphasis is not the same as Matthew's.
Luke's emphasis... The main message is that Jesus
is making room for the outsider. Jesus wants
all of his people to know God fully. Of course,
he does not want anybody left out, but he also
wants them, the people that are talking to him
in the land in that moment, to understand that
their family name, their nationality, or where
they are from shouldn't cause them to take their
place in the kingdom for granted. That what might
happen later should not distract them from what
is happening right now. When you go to Matthew,
the example is how people came to him and said,
Lord, Lord. And he said, I did not know you.
And they said, what do you mean you didn't know
us? And he says, well, when I was in prison,
you didn't visit me. And when I needed water,
you did not give me something to drink. He connects
this idea that what you do here on earth. communicate
something about how you know me. It's not saying
that your works get you into heaven. It means
that you're paying attention to the kingdom here
on earth. Does that make sense? Either way, him
saying this to them in that moment probably sounded
scary to them. Now, I don't think that Jesus
uses heaven and hell to scare us into believing
in him, but I do think that there is a very narrow
place for this kind of confrontation. I think
Jesus uses this kind of argument wherever he
finds a sense of entitlement that has caused
people to think they should get what they want
automatically. I told this story years ago. So
maybe a handful of you have heard this before.
My dad will remember this. And I was probably,
I might have been a junior or senior in high
school. I don't know. What year do you get Letterman
jackets in high school? Do you all remember that?
So whatever year that was. back in the late 1900s.
I told my parents, I played tennis, and I was
like, I don't see a lot of tennis players walking
around with letterman jackets. And so I was like,
I would rather have something else. And so we
went through the mall, and I remember the name
of the, there was like a leather goods store,
and it had like lots of leather jackets, really
fancy ones. What? Yeah, Wilson's. Yeah, so Wilson's.
And I was like, well, let's go to Wilson's. Maybe,
could I get something from Wilson's instead?
And so I picked the most, what now would be considered
the most gaudy, six -color Bears leather jacket
that you could ever imagine. And I thought it
was sweet. The trouble is that we went, and they
let me be a part of choosing it before Christmas.
And so Christmas morning comes along, and I'd
been a little snot probably for a couple weeks.
And Christmas morning comes along, and we open
all the presents. Where's the jacket? I don't
know, Greg. You've had a pretty bad attitude.
What do you mean I've had a bad attitude? It's
Christmas. That's mine. You can't have a gift
and then not give it to me. There's something
that happens in us when we have something that
we think should be automatic. There's a sense
of entitlement that was in me. That needed to
be checked. I needed to be reminded what Christmas
was about. We need to be reminded sometimes what
the kingdom is about. Where our hearts should
be. Now, I think there's another important distinction
to be made here. Because I don't think that this
is the kind of confrontation that Jesus has for
everyone. I think that when you read the scriptures,
you see this happen. You particularly see it
happen with religious leaders or scholars or
people that might be experiencing or expressing
some kind of entitlement. But I do not think
that this is the way that Jesus expresses a call
to the kingdom or a sense of following him towards
everyone. Think about it like this. Okay, back
in my family, early 20s, not 1920s, in my early
20s. I don't remember what it was, but my mom
was joking with me. Well, I guess I'll write
you out of the will. And I was like, I'm fine.
And she said, well, I guess your sister will
get the antiques then. And I was like, yeah,
I'm good. Listen, you cannot fear someone into
something that they do not care about. You cannot
scare someone into something when they don't
think that it's there in the first place. You
cannot use a sense of fear of losing this if
they didn't know it was even an option. People
have no fear of not getting something they don't
believe is there in the first place. In Luke,
the outsiders, the non -Jews didn't know that
God had a kingdom. They didn't know that God
had a kingdom. So Jesus wasn't, no one should
bother trying to scare them into the kingdom
by saying, you might not get this. You might
end up in Gehenna. You might end up in the valley
of Himon, burning for all eternity. They had
no fear of that. It was not a concept that existed
for them. No, they are coming because Jesus is
drawing them in with hope and with love and with
delight. The thing that they wanted just as much
as anyone else was to not be oppressed, was to
not be ruled with an iron fist, was to believe
that someone, maybe a God, could love them no
matter what they had done. Today millions of
people keep hitting control alt delete on Christianity
and Jesus because there's too much fear coming
out of the Christian faith. We need to delight
in the person of Jesus. And we need to introduce
people to a Jesus that is delighted in them.
Not a Jesus just waiting to punish them if they
don't believe. We should ask ourselves, Does
God sound more like an abusive, manipulative
husband? Or does he sound like a God that is
love? Because when Christianity says, if you
don't believe in Jesus, he will punish you forever.
That sounds like control. When Christianity says,
if you were born in the wrong country and you
die having never heard of Jesus, he will punish
you forever. That sounds like control when Christianity
says if you were abused by Christians, hurt by
churches, manipulated by pastors, and come to
the natural conclusion that Jesus must not be
real because the real life examples you had were
abusive, God's going to punish you forever. That
sounds like control. And when we say if you care
for your neighbors, if you serve selflessly,
if you lift the poor from poverty and the endangered
from their danger, but you didn't do it because
you knew Jesus, God will punish you forever.
That sounds like control. That sounds more like
an abusive husband or a dictator that bombs countries
that won't do what they want them to do. Years
ago, I hit delete on believing in a version of
a God that sounds exactly like an abusive husband
or father. The kind of person that would kill
and hurt us if we don't fall in line. And instead,
I believe in a God that is willing to die for
us. Willing to be killed and hurt so that we
can fall in love. Jesus wants everyone from the
east and from the west, from the north and from
the south, and he does not want us, if we are
already here, to take for granted the kingdom
that we are in. He's longing for us not to fall
in line, but to fall in love. With the God that
is love. But there is no greater command than
this. To love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your
strength. And the second command is like it.
To love your neighbor as you love yourself. So
many people that we know are so close to hit
and control, delete on all this altogether. And
maybe, maybe, just maybe, we can put aside using
a fear tactic and we can come with a love tactic.
I think people are tired of trying to fall in
line. And they need to meet the Jesus that delights
in them. Amen? Let us pray. God, the scriptures
are not always easy to understand because we
are living in 2026. Not decades, not centuries,
but millennia. from when they were said and when
they were written. And I pray that we come to
them with a sense of humility. The truth is that
I do not know exactly what happens after this
life, but my greatest hope is that we will get
to be with you. And I pray that we can carry,
that at least I will carry the sense of eternity
in the presence of your fullness of love, that
I can carry that with me each day in this life.
That I can be conscious of your kingdom here
in this place. And that that will cause me to
carry a sense of delight. Not a message of destruction.
I pray this church would exist to invite people
in to call prodigals home. To adopt the spiritually
homeless. to offer rest, a place to live and
work, and a great house because no one should
be left out. And I pray that in our lifetimes,
that we will see a strong and undeniable sense,
a shift from spiritual homelessness to a strong
sense of spiritual family. Not just in this church,
but in churches and in our cities, across our
region, our county, our state. It would emanate
out. You are the God that loves and that you
love us. You desire that none should perish,
but that all should have eternal life. Help us
be a beautiful part of that process. Amen.