Capital City Christian Church | Podcast

"Blessed are the meek … I don’t like that word. It’s a great word, actually, if you understand it properly. But too often we think it means “weak,” or “feeble,” or “timid,” or “passive,” or “cowardly,” even. The gentle Jesus, meek and mild … the cosmic doormat. What the word does not evoke, often enough, is power under God-honoring control. With Jesus … infinite power, under this stunning love-driven control. Matthew was written in Greek, not English. And the Greek word is “praeis” … blessed are the “praeis.” And if you were to look “praies” up in a dictionary of New Testament Greek, you would find definitions like this: “gentle,” “humble,” “considerate,” … or “meek in the older favorable sense” … not the newer “wussy sense.” Gentle: Blessed by God, favored by God are the gentle. Humble: Blessed by God are the humble, because they won’t treat others God loves with disrespect. Considerate: Favored by God are the considerate, because they won’t use or abuse people because they can. So, some Bibles still translate it, “Blessed are the meek.” Others, “Blessed are those who are humble.” Others, “Blessed are the gentle.” That’s my favorite, because I think it captures what Jesus meant the most clearly." Stephen "Doc" Pattison, Teaching Pastor

"So, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? I think we could say it this way: BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO RECOGNIZE THEIR OWN SPIRITUAL BANKRUPTCY. Some people are qualified for citizenship in this new Kingdom with this new King. If you can recognize your own spiritual bankruptcy, if you can recognize how much you need a savior, then you are qualified for citizenship in this new Kingdom that Jesus is building. Now, recognizing your own spiritual bankruptcy doesn't mean that you hate yourself. It doesn't mean that you feel like you have no value. It doesn't mean that you have weak faith or a false humility. It's none of those things. What it does mean is that you recognize you are broke spiritually. Recognize you are brokenhearted. That you are captive. Recognize that you are in the darkness as a prisoner spiritually. No one can participate in this new Kingdom who has not recognized their desperate need for God and their own inability to meet that need." Ben Webb, Lead Minister

"You see, sometimes we want to respect Jesus as a “great teacher,” but that’s all. Or, we want to use him as a helper when we need him … when we need him. Sometimes we want a Jesus who will sign on to our agenda. But we resist calling him “Lord,” or “Master.” We want his strength, and his comfort … but resist surrender. We want him to be kind of like this benevolent spiritual force we can tap into when we want … instead of an intensely personal God. But Jesus will not be the Messiah you want. He is the Messiah you need. He’s God, guys. He’s King. And being a Jesus follower means being a Jesus “follower” … He leads. He leads when you get it, and when you don’t. He leads when you agree with him, and when you don’t. He leads when you like it, and when you don’t. Because he is king … the divine–human king. None of this, “It’s my life, who made you the boss of me” nonsense. None of this, “Follow your own path, live your own truth, you choose what’s right for you,” nonsense. He’s … Lord. Do you get that? Psalm 110 is about divine-human messiah, a divine-human king." Stephen "Doc" Pattison, Growth Pastor

We said it this way in passing last week: Prophecy is a miraculous spiritual gift where people receive revelation from God. God gives them something that they wouldn't know or wouldn't understand other than God miraculously giving it to them. And then the one who receives the message is expected to speak that message. The message is for the community. It’s for God’s people. And when they speak the message, it’s under divine inspiration. Prophecy is an act of truth-telling. And most of the time truth doesn’t feel nice. Usually when God authors a prophecy, it serves as a warning to shape up or he's going to show up. So, most of the time, prophecy reveals truth.

So, we may not be able to point at this specific time and place where Jesus said, "It's more blessed to give than to receive." But those words, I think, perfectly sum up Jesus' ethic. Jesus was all about generosity. Giving and being generous aligns us with God's generous nature. It's who God is. It's what God does. Giving and being generous is being like God. Giving and being generous is being like Jesus. And Jesus says that it's better to be a giver than to be a receiver. It's better to be a conduit of blessing to the people around us than to be a consumer of blessings. Do you believe that? It's kind of a hard thing to believe. It's not what our intuition says. It's not what we would assume. Why is it more blessed to give than to receive? Why is giving more blessed?

Our heart is connected to wherever we put our treasure. We FEED whatever is most important to us. So, if your heart is in two children while ignoring five other children, that means that your treasure is going to go to those two children, right? If your heart is in your career and not in your family, then your time is going to go to your career. Or maybe your heart is in your stuff — the accumulation of things. If that's where your heart is, then your money's going to go there too. Which means that your money isn’t going to God. Because we subsidize what we love. Where our heart is, where our passion is, where our love is … will be where we put our attention, our time, and our money. The Bible challenges us to put God first. And the Bible challenges us to prove it with our money. It's one thing to say that you've made God the priority in your life — your money will rat you out. Your money will reveal whether or not God is first.

A story of hardship is interesting. But a story of hardship that intersects with Jesus and creates transformation has power to it. A story like that has the ability to move someone. YOUR STORY MAY BE THE STIMULUS THAT SOMEONE ELSE NEEDS TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT JESUS.

"We’re saying food fills our stomachs and it fills our souls. Eating meets a physical need, and eating together can meet a spiritual need. And we’ve said it’s not really about the food itself. It’s about what you intend to do with that opportunity. All of this is about reaching the “ones” in your life. JUST 1 PLUS 5. Sharing a meal will give you opportunities to prove love while also reaching a new depth of relationship with one another. Because eating together has that potential to grow relationship with one another, to create a deeper trust, to create a deeper bond, to create a deeper experience that you can have with one another. And that opens the door to bigger conversations. It opens the door to a deeper spiritual depth. I think sharing a meal makes us real. I think it breaks down barriers. It helps us find common ground. Especially when combined with listening. Last week we talked about the power of listening. We said it this way: “Being heard is so close to being loved that it’s almost indistinguishable.”

We have some momentum. We’re consistently seeing life change happening in this church. So, I think it's the perfect time to double down. And I'm going to challenge you to participate. I’m not concerned with the 64 different people who baptized someone last year. I'm not worried about the people in the room who have five people they are working on. You're excited about what God has been doing in your life, and you're motivated to share that into the lives of the people that you know and the relationships that you have. Keep going. Keep doing what you’re doing. “Just one” is to encourage the rest of us to get in the game. This is for those who haven’t intentionally identified someone who needs to know Jesus. This is for those who haven’t developed a strategy of how you could bring someone to Jesus. Can you find your one? Maybe you don't recognize the opportunities. Maybe you don't have the courage to step into those opportunities. Maybe you don't think you have the wisdom to know how to lead someone to Jesus. Your invited to be a part of something big. I want you to come and be a part of something big. Maybe you’ve been sitting back and cheering us on this past year. It's great that you're happy about what's happening here in this church. Even better is if you would participate. Come be a part of what we’re doing.

Here’s the real question: Do you think the sorrow diminished, or extinguished, the joy? Does your pain diminish, or extinguish, your joy? There’s always a boatload of pain in the middle of our Christmas stories. Families that are not at peace. Maybe there is someone who can’t come home, or won’t come home, or someone you lost. Maybe there is pain because you couldn’t give the gifts you wanted, or maybe the gifts you did give were unwanted. For many, the apparent joy of others only intensifies the loneliness and unhappiness they themselves feel. So, does your pain diminish, or extinguish, your joy? Joy is easy in the context of a manger. Joy is easy when our choreography comes true. But what about when our plans are shattered. What about in the context of brokenness? Or what about in the face of evil? Is joy still possible in the context of the slaughter?

If peace is something that you are missing, don’t be afraid of the wrong things. Put your fear in the Lord and find his mercy pour out in your life, and it will be peace to your heart. It starts by making peace with God. That is, after all, what this is all about. That’s why Jesus showed up in the first place — not because he simply just wanted to ease our fears, not to simply call us to follow him, not to simply even be with us. Jesus showed up to resolve the chaos that exists in the relationship that we have with God. Sin has damaged our relationship with God, and Jesus shows up to usher in peace. So, it starts with being at peace ourselves with God. But when that happens, it translates out into every edge of our lives. When we can accept our role as God’s servant just like Mary does, where she says, “I am the Lord’s servant,” if we can accept that; and when we choose to live with Immanuel — God with us — because God’s offered it and he’s available and he wants to; if we can be the Lord’s servant and we can let God live with us, then that phrase “do not be afraid” makes a whole lot more sense, and we can live with courage, and peace wins out.

You probably know that as people get older, they tend to lose their filters. They just say things that might not have said when they were younger. It just comes out. Sometimes old people think they have earned the right to let loose. But here’s the deal: If, when you look inside, you see you in you, then what comes out in those “unguarded moments” is probably going to be pretty ugly. If, on the other hand, you look inside and you see Christ in you … then I don’t care if you lose your filters, because what comes out is going to be God-honoring. And here it is guys, I can put up with babies who act like babies. But when old guys like me still act like babies, that’s intolerable. I know, I’ll be battling with my “self” till the day I die. And I suspect most all of you will be battling your “self” till the day you die. But I hope we spend most of our time at a level 3 maturity, with occasional forays into level 4, with very, very little time at levels 1 or 2. Do you get that? Life truth #3: Christian maturity is a choice we make, every day till the day we die, not a state we achieve. So where are you? How are you doing?