"I came to save. You want to play?"

The title of this post comes from a new pastor I have been listening to named Matt Chandler. He is a 34 year old lead pastor at The Village Church in Dallas, and sounds like Dane Cook and John Piper put together (Hilarious and extremely convicting at the same time). At the time of listening to this sermon, I was feeling like I was coming off the "spiritual high" I had been on the last few months. I put spiritual high in quotes because I really don't like to call it a spiritual high. It sounds like this realization that my sin is crucified with Christ and the cost it took to do that will only last another few months or something. I don't know about you, but I am not going to set myself up to fail. Sure, I might forget these things if I stop spending time with Him. Godliness doesn't just happen to fall in our laps. It is pursued actively. We are always swimming up stream in this tolerant culture.

Basically, this feeling was telling me there is something on top of realizing my sin nature, seeing the love of Christ, and finding the communion with Him given to me. What else could there be?! I know that's what I was thinking, but God was about to show me. It was this:

The Cross saves us FROM something, and the Resurrection saves us TO something.

Um what did you say? I have never had something just completely stare me in the face but was so unable to see it. I was unable to see it because I was making my relationship with Christ about me! Some of you are like umm duuuhhh Jason, you know Christ did defeat death right? Well of course I know that, but again was I living it? No. Am I living it now? Of course not as much as I should be, but I hope I'm on the right path.

I will describe my conundrum (I spelled that right the first try) like this: I was so caught up in the crucifixion of my sin, that I forgot about the resurrection of my body! Focusing on what Christ did and what I didn't do in my salvation is such an awesome place to be, and in no way am I saying the state I was in for the past few months is place we should never be. I think we should preach ourselves the Gospel everyday! However, let us do that, but then be empowered by it! It is the fuel of our mission. The resurrection of our body is telling us something. This world matters. If God is has made me a new person and is making my friends and family new also, He is probably doing a lot more than that. I get so stuck in myself and my sin problems and then how Christ redeems me. Notice the most common word in that last sentence. ME, MYSELF, MY SIN. This continual mentality turns my relationship with Christ into a self-help process.

Matt Chandler describes it like this: God says, "I came to save. Do you want to play?" There is something about this statement that just makes me want to scream, YES! I see it like we have been at preseason practice for the last few months and it is almost time for the season to start. The coach comes into the arena and says who wants to play? This is what we have been working for! But the awesome thing is God has already won the game. Wait if He already won the game, why do we have to play? Because we love Him and this is what He created us for! Even though the game is won He still wants us to play! It's the only thing that will fufill the hunger that we have been developing over preseason! (Not to mention that He has commanded us to do so)

So what is the game? The game is to make our world new. The human race has been trying to do this in everyway possible (vaccinations, the Green cause and almost anything to better ourselves). What I think is hilarious is if evolution is the mode of life, then why are we trying to save the weak? We should let the natural world kill off the weak! Are we doing this? No, because that is "inhumane." Where do you think this feeling came from? It is how God created us! We already intrinsinctly implainted with His mission. This world matters, and the Creator of everything and nothing wants us to be apart of the renewing of not only ourselves but the renewing of everything sin has infected. The Apostle John gives us something to work towards:

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adornded for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.' And He who sits on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new' And He said, 'Write, for these words are faithful and true.' " Revelation 21:1-5

This doesn't start when we die and go to Heaven. This started when sin entered the world, and I need to get in the game.