Scared!

Last night I had the privilege to listen to my good friend, Matt Clark, deliver a heartfelt keynote at one of my favorite camps: LCU's Encounter. He ended his message appealing to the 1000 gathered students to put their "planks" (Matthew 7:1-4) out there, to hand them over to the "Plank Remover," Jesus Christ. He called the camp to transparency and confession. Ministers stood on the stage prepared to receive those desiring prayers. Students, counselors, teachers and sponors flooded the stage.

Having faced crippling shame in my own life, Matt invited students dealing with shame to come and pray with me...and there were many. As we huddled together, tears streamed down thier young faces, heads hung low and their heartbeats raced. I could see it in their faces, they wanted to share, and not just the generic,

"I've got some struggles right now!"

"I've made some bad choices!"

"I feel ashamed over things I have done!"

But I could sense they wanted to name "it" but were afraid. They were afraid of being known. Being known means being vulnerable, it means the possibility of rejection, it means undoing the perfect perception they'd worked so hard to establish! They wanted to know what all humans want to know..."Will you still love me?"

This is why ALL people need...

1. The Gospel. In Luke 7, Jesus dines with a Pharisee, the religious Lebron. During the meal, a prostitute enters the home and begins to wash Jesus' feet with her tears. Her very presence at the table defiled the meal. She was dirty, unclean...a sinner. The Pharisee mumbles to himself, "If Jesus KNEW what kind of woman she was..." implying he would cast her out, reject her, scold and rebuke her. The Pharisee failed to realize that Jesus DOES know what kind of woman she is. He knows she earns a living by selling her body. He knows she is a sinner. He knows she is unclean. But, he also knows her heart...her broken and repentant heart. Knowing what he knows Jesus affirms her,  "Your sins are forgiven! Go in peace!" In other words, "I still love you!" 

No doubt the woman came to Jesus trembling expecting rejection, hate, and humiliation. Fear! But she encountered the gospel, the good news, Jesus Christ and disovered that her worst was no match for the love of Christ! We need to hear the gospel and be reminded of it in our worst moments!

2. Deep Relationships. Facebook and Twitter give us the ability to be our own paparazzi, publicist, and promoter. We edit our own life to a highlight reel and in so doing create a community of superficial relationships. I'm not knocking social media...I will link this post on all venues. But, superficial relationships cannot provide the safety humans need to thrive. We need deep meaningful relationships, and it doesn't have to be many...one, two, three individuals with whom you can make yourself known, fully known and who, with their words and actions, say, "I love you still!"

More than investing in successful careers, stocks and bonds, or luxury homes, we would live healthier, fuller lives if we invested in deep meaningful relationships. It's worth more than the price of your home, a new title at the office, a salary upgrade, noteriety, and "success." 

3. A Faith Community. Our churches have an amazing opportunity to be safe zones, places known for "loving still!" Places where strangers walk in and feel at ease, places where confession is modeled and practiced by leadership, places where grace is not simply preached but lived out in tears and embraces, places where people can check their performance at the door, and places that exorcise fear! 

Yes, many churches fail, many foster fear...but many do not. Find one! Join it! Become a part of the "no fear" culture! A word to Church leaders: creating a No Fear Zone starts with you: your transparency, your teaching, your intentionality...

As the students huddled around, afraid yet wanting to be known...the Spirit moved me to step out of my own fear and start the conversation by sharing from my own sin and failure. Then the floodgates of confession opened...fear ceased and our hugs and tears said, "We love you still!" 

The Gospel as a Pistol: A Confession

In the third season of Prison Break (2005-2009 Fox television series), the main protagonist finds himself locked-up in a ruthless South American prison, a prison so dangerous guards refuse to serve inside the walls. Instead, military sharpshooters, crouched on watchtowers, "take out" anyone attempting an escape. Periodically, military convoys drop off food within the prison walls but what happens inside is much like Vegas: what happens there stays there. As a result, the prisoners developed their own system of government, one that is a far cry from democracy. It's a dictatorship. The "baddest hombre" gets to call the shots.

In one of the episodes, a subordinate manages to acquire a pistol. In a community where shivs are atop the weapon pyramid, a pistol means one thing: POWER! With gun hand, the inmate must decide how he will leverage this new acquired power...create equality, democracy, justice or seize the opportunity to get on top. Whether you've seen the series or not, you know the answer. He removes the current dictator from power and assumes his "throne."

Human nature tends to leverage instruments of power for self-gain - including the gospel!

A couple of weeks ago I ran into the social media hubbub surrounding a letter from a Senior Pastor in Houston, TX. Take a look:

 

I felt disgust when I first read this letter, "How could a pastor prey upon believers by leveraging the influential power of the gospel? How could he use it for his own personal gain at the expense of his congregation?" I was angry!

But then, as God often does, he shoved my anger and disgust in my face! The gospel is powerful. It fuels hope. It promises that evil will not have the last word. It speaks to the deep recesses of the human heart. It persuades. It convicts. It transform. It changes individual lives. It changes communities. It has left a lasting legacy on the world. It is powerful, but as is often the case, we I leverage the gospel for personal gain.

No, we don't have an Aviation Department at TCOC. We don't even have a bathroom in our Teen Center...but we have a Teen Center (you get the idea). Honestly, I do not struggle with leveraging the gospel for money. Money annoys me (although I do like having it). But I AM guilty of leveraging the gospel for personal gain. Confession time:

• I have leveraged the gospel to boost a ministry career.
• I have leveraged the gospel to try and build a "fan base" for my preaching.
• I have leveraged the gospel to foster a respectable reputation.
• I have leveraged the gospel to secure employment. 
• I have leveraged the gospel in search of notoriety.

Fortunately, but in the most unfortunate of manners, I detonated a nuclear bomb on all of my gospel-exploited ventures. That does not make me immune from gospel exploitation. I still plead guilty (nearly daily), but it has given me a greater awareness of those moments when I do leverage the power of the gospel for self-gain.

Bishop Hilliard's exploitation of the gospel might be easier to see, but I am guilty of the same crime.  I struggle daily to leverage the gospel for the Kingdom of God rather than for personal gain. Perhaps you do too.

My prayer is something I tweeted recently: God, I want to close the gap between my desire for the Kingdom of God and my understanding of it.  I have studied and dissected the Kingdom of God. I believe I have a decent grasp on what the Kingdom looks like. I pray that my desire for God's Kingdom match my current understanding of it. I invite you to pray this prayer with me so that we might leverage the gospel for God and God alone!