Revolt!

Every year, Life.Church has a special series in July called At the Movies. Each location goes all out, choosing a movie theme and decorating the lobby with incredible scenes from memorable movies. Pastor Craig Groeschel chooses a movie each week, shows clips from the movies, and then brings biblical lessons from the movie. (I highly encourage you to go to Life.Church Online and watch the message this week.)

Every year, we try to attend the At the Movies series at least online if not in person. This year is no different. Roy works with a young lady with some transportation issues, and so we have been taking her to the service for the last couple of weeks. We’ve been to two different Life.Church campuses and seen an amazing depiction of The Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo. It’s always fun to see the creativity of the teams!

This last week, Pastor Craig chose the movie Jesus Revolution. First, if you have never seen the movie, see it now! It’s such a powerful reminder of who we as Christians are supposed to be. Second, make sure you log on to Life.Church Online and watch the sermon (hurry! It’s only available until Saturday!).

As I watched the sermon this week, I was reminded that we are dealing with a similar situation to the 1960s depicted in the movie. You see, in the 1960s and early 1970s, a group of young people were fighting against the establishment. They wanted peace and love, and they were searching for it in all the wrong places.

Kelsey Grammer plays a pastor who, like most religious folks, was closed off to this younger generation fighting against the establishment–until he encountered Lonnie, a hippie who happened to love Jesus. As Grammer began to see Lonnie’s heart, God did a work in his own heart. He began to recognize that this generation was searching for Jesus, but they just didn’t know it.

Without going into great detail, I will just say that God used the relationship between a pastor within the establishment and a young hippie to change this world. The Jesus Movement took Jesus out of the Church and to the people–exactly where He wants to be.

I have written a number of times recently about deconstructing Christianity, and can I just say that we–the old, seasoned Christians–are the reason so many people are turning against the faith? I am so sorry to say it, but we are the establishment, the old pastor and church people who can’t see that the next generation is just looking for Jesus–and they are looking in all the wrong places?

Maybe it’s not the hippies.

But maybe it is the LGBTQ+ population. They reject the church because of us, Christians who have chosen to reject them.

Or maybe it’s the woman who had an abortion. She is rejecting the church because of the judgement she has experienced.

Or maybe it’s the single mom who suffered an awful divorce. She’s scared to go to the church for fear of rejection, pain heaped upon unbearable pain.

Or maybe it’s the drug addict who knows he needs help but fears the reception he will get. He sees church as a place where he has to get cleaned up first.

Or maybe…. You can fill in the blank. Who is it that has been rejected, judged, oppressed by us as Christians?

Maybe we are the reason people are deconstructing their faith.

Oh friend, I don’t want God to tell me that my actions caused someone to miss the life-giving joy of knowing Christ as Savior here on earth! I want my heart to be softened, to be open to those who sin differently than I do! I want to be a safe place where they can come without fear.

I want to be Jesus to them!!

Here’s the thing: Jesus approached the “sinners” with love and grace. Think about the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). Or Zaccheus in Luke 19. Or the woman at the well in John 4. Without fail, Jesus approached the outcasts, the sinners, those who were different with an abundance of love and grace.

But what about the religious people? Oh, Jesus saved His harshest words for those folks! In Matthew 3, he denounced them calling them a brood of snakes. In Matthew 21, Jesus cleared threw a temple tantrum, turning over tables because of the dishonesty and failure to respect God’s house. In Matthew 23, he referred to the religious leaders as whitewashed tombs, putting on a show on the outside but with hearts that were far from Him.

There are numerous other examples of how Jesus led with love and grace to those who were oppressed and lost in sin versus how he felt about the religious leaders.

None of us want to believe we would be lumped in with the Pharisees, but sadly I’m afraid Jesus sees our hearts far more clearly than we do. I am afraid that we, the established Church, have closed off hearts and minds. We think that others must look like us, think like us, act like us. We think we must be the Holy Spirit, pointing out sins and failures, convicting others of what we perceive to be against God.

We are trapped in the rules we have created for worshipping God instead of enjoying the freedom He came to give!

Ouch! Yes, we have created rules for worshipping God. I know I am guilty. I grew up in the Baptist church where we don’t dance, smoke, drink, or go with guys who do. There’s nothing wrong with these rules. It is certainly healthier to avoid substances that can affect our physical bodies. But what about those who have different ideas about life?

Here’s an example: I love my kids with all my hearts! They are great kids, with exceptional hearts. My younger son is a firefighter–landed his dream job at the age of 20! He loves being there to help others in their darkest days.

But he has tattoos. Ugh! He recently got another one. Maybe he’s up to 5 now. I’m not really sure. Here’s the thing: I simply do not understand tattoos. I can live with some of the smaller ones that have meaning like the one on his chest that represents the day his dad died. It’s not for me, but I can understand and support that one. But the rest of them? (And trust me, we’ve had this conversation.)

But do you know what? Those tattoos do not change his heart! He is still the same amazing young man that I know and love!

While we look at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

And as long as we are looking at outward appearances, those who are desperately in need of Jesus will never find Him! We will be the stumbling block that prevents them from finding the very love and freedom they so desperately need!

If you feel like your brand of Christianity is oppressive, you’ve found religion and not Jesus!

To those who are deconstructing their faith, I argue they have found religion and not the Jesus I know!

To those who are caught up in the rules–even those rooted in scripture–you’ve found religion and not Jesus!

You see, Jesus is all about freedom and abundance and excitement! The life He called us to live is anything but boring or ordinary!

Oh friend! We as Christians must allow God to do surgery on our hearts, to take out the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). We must ask Him to show us any place we are holding onto rules and religion instead of Jesus. We must ask Him to give us open minds to see that those who are different from us aren’t really that different.

We must ask Him to change us so we can take Him to the world instead of asking the world to come to us!

We must ask Him to use us to create a new Jesus Revolution!