Jesus asks one man to change, he can't. Jesus asks the other man for a relationship, he changes.

I realized something amazing after the message on wednesday.

In Luke 18 a rich religious young ruler comes and asks Jesus how he can enter life (heaven, eternal life, age to come, etc.) and Jesus responds that he must sell all he has and give to the poor. We learned that Jesus responded this way because the man struggled with wanting all the stuff he could get, and that he walked away sad because he couldn't let that go.

Here's where it gets interesting.

In Luke 19 Jesus calls Zacchaeus and tells him “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” AND LOOK AT ZACH'S RESPONSE:

“Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 

You guys catch what just happened there? Jesus asked a rich religious ruler to give what he had to the poor and he walks away sad. Then he tells Zacchaeus, the rebellious tax collector, he's going to his house for dinner and Zach responds that he's going to give his stuff to the poor!

Wait did we miss something here? Both men struggle with wanting more. Jesus asks the religious one, the one inclined to follow the law, to give up his stuff; he can't. He tells the sinner, the one who is inclined to keep living the way he is, that hes coming to dinner and he replies by giving up his stuff. This is crazy. Jesus asks one man to change, he can't. Jesus asks the other man for a relationship, he changes.

Change is going to happen as we know and follow Jesus. It happens in relationship. 

So, don't like the rich ruler go away sad that change hasn't happened, but like Zach get into being with Jesus and he will change you!

ty

Jesus Talks About Kids Who Do Whatever They Want and That He Still Disgraces Himself to Run to Them

I thought Derrick did an amazing job last wednesday.

It is amazing to read this story in Luke 15, kept for us for 2000 years, that
so perfectly shows how God loves us.

I mean, we wouldn't have caught this otherwise i don't think... but in the
Jewish culture it would be very disgraceful for a father (especially a wealthy
respected one) to lift up his pants and come running towards the son who had
walked out on him. This would be like Billy Ray running towards Miley in a bathrobe
on national tv after she insulted his country career (he's got it coming), took all his money
and wrote "my dad is dead to me" on facebook.

And yet, thats what the father does. He didn't even care what the son had done.
He didn't care that he had wasted all of the fathers hard earned money.
He didn't care that he had partied, and wasted his life with prostitutes and alcohol.

So why do we? Why do we let those things keep people from coming to Jesus.
And why do we let those things keep us from coming to Jesus.

Here's the craziest thing about the story... God is running to you.

-ty

God, Osama and the Church

I don't understand the eternal complexities of God's perspective on the death of Osama.

Seeing that God is both perfectly satisfied in his wrath AND broken hearted for the suffering of the wicked, I cannot with my little finite mind interweave his eternally just emotions of love and anger, patience and omnipotence, forgiveness and justice.
I can't with full assurance perfectly interweave and articulate how verses like Ezekiel 18:23 "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? . . . For I do not pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live." AND Deuteronomy 28:63 "And as the LORD took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the LORD will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you." fit together.
I won't even try to explain the compassion and forbearance of the God and the promise to judge the wicked.
This is all too much for me to understand.

But I do think that I can understand what the churches perspective aught to be.

Remember Luke 6?

27“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,  28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  29To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.  30Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them."

If there was ever a time to put Jesus' words here into practice it is now. I think that we can put Osama safely into all the "enemy" categories here and yet I have seen very little of the "love" categories response (especially on facebook) from those who claim to follow him.

Let us pray for this abuser, for if he is recoiling beneath the heavy wrath of God right now then he is a Jesusless man who is who paying the debt that is owed while I stand safely in Jesus who has taken the weight of my debt upon the cross.

ty

Jesus radically redefines love by defining hate

So, i totally missed something this last week.

i didnt realize the depth of what Jesus was saying in Luke 6. Check this out again:

"But I say to you who hear,
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them."

Jesus says "love your enemies" and then goes on to define "love". He says "love your enemies" and then he goes on to define "enemies". This may seem like no big deal at first but once i realized this i saw that Jesus is radically redefining love by defining hatred.

Jesus' definition of those that hate you:
those that curse you
those that abuse you
those who strike you
those that steal from you
those that beg you
those that take from you

Jesus' radical definition of love:
do good to those that hate
bless those that curse
pray for those who abuse
be a punching bag for those that fight
give to those who steal
give all to those that beg

you see, Jesus is redefining love by showing its depths. As we are hated and are able to love because of the cross we are stretching what we know of love to get closer to what it is for God to love. we understand the eternal perfection of God's love because he perfectly showed it to those that hated him and it covered all that hatred and made God's people one. Crazy.

Jesus is the man.
ty

Thoughts on Blessed Part 1

Welp, i really wanted to get a bit farther than two verses wednesday... but i think God had his way.

I received a question in my email in response to the message that basically asked: "ok, now that we see that Jesus' perspective is radically different than ours what do we do now?"

What a great question!

Jesus is changing the way we think and look at life...and.. here is the crazy thing with that... as our minds are changed and our perspectives change... so do our actions.
its not even like we have to try and change, it naturally happens as we look at the world around us differently.
its kinda like this:
say you grow up blind. You get used to feeling your way through life and listening to everything around you.
then one day your eye sight starts working and you can see everything around you.
this is going to drastically change the way you live your life... though there is nothing that you have to try and change.
you will now walk with your hands free as you watch where youre going.
the things that you like may change, the things that anger you might change... but its nothing that you did.
you now see beauty and evil around you. You may have used to like quiet places, now you like to watch busy loud places.
you have changed.

i cant wait to see the change that GOD DOES in you guys as your minds are made more like Jesus'!

in Him,
ty

New Series Starts Tonight!

Untitled from tyson Morlet on Vimeo.

Luke 5 - Jesus Bringin the New

^{Last night we ended without going into this scripture:}

^{Luke 5:33}And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.”  ³⁴And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?  ³⁵The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”  ³⁶He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.  ³⁷And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.  ³⁸But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.  ³⁹And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

Jesus' message was new: salvation for the world by means of grace, and so was his method: salvation for the worst of people who are far away from God.

The pharisees could not get past this. They were looking to the law to save them. Their whole identity was wrapped up in working hard to please God. It didn't make sense to them that the holiest man to ever walk the earth, God of very God in fact, would be seeking out and eating with the worst of sinners. 

So what is Jesus saying here?

If you take an old shirt with a hole in it and put a piece of an new shirt and then wash it the new will shrink and tear the old. Your'e left with two shanked shirts.

If you take new wine and put it into old wineskins then the new wine will expand and burst the old skin. Your'e left with a busted skin and no wine. 

The new message of Christ cannot be contained in the old method of the law. Grace cannot be mixed with following rules, being better or trying harder. It cannot be about both being better, reading this or that or praying more and at the same time be about trusting in Jesus to be the one who stands before God on your behalf.

We have to choose.

Rest completely on the finished work of Jesus, looking to him to be anything good in you, bending that same grace out to the people who fail around you OR work harder to be better. Read more, fast more, try more and hold everyone around you to that same standard and grow hard and bitter like the pharisees did.

Jesus ends in verse 39 by saying that the "old is good," because its not that the law is bad; we are. The law was good and would have brought us to God if we could in all ways fulfill it. But we can't.

So, I urge you to rest completely on the grace of God, and realize that as Jesus sought Levi, He is actively pursuing you. And as Levi responded by inviting the people closest to him to be around Jesus, so ought we.

- ty

Jesus Came For the Sick.

It is interesting to me that as I am sitting in a hospital room watching my grandfather grow weaker and weaker, I am supposed to be at Uprising teaching on Luke chapter five.

Weird how life works because in this passage Jesus would call a tax collector, Matthew(culturally evil thief who stole from the poorest people to pay off a foreign government scraping off the top to get rich), to leave everything and follow him. At this the religious pharisees would question Jesus calling a sinner to follow him when they were ready in their justified self righteousness to be called. Jesus' response shocks me and has transformed the way I think:

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

What shocks me is the response of the people Jesus was interacting with. There are two audiences here: 1. The Pharisees - You would think that these guys would realize what Jesus is saying, admit their fault and follow Jesus–but they don't. They get angry and argue with him...

Now heres the crazy thing.

Audience 2. is Matthew (also called Levi). He is the one who should be ticked... Jesus just called him "sick" and a "sinner" (basically shanks him) and what is his response? He throws a party and invites all his friends so amazed that God would call him. And whats amazing is that Matthew would go on to write the biggest Gospel (written account of Jesus' life) and would follow Christ through the cross and go on to help build the church... while the pharisees have written nothing of worth and have if anything tried to hinder the growth of the church.

Amazing how God continues to use the least likely people to complete his work. This gives me hope as I watch my deist Grandpa battle with the will of God... Jesus came for the sick.

love you guys and missed you tonight,
Tyson