Putting Jesus' Words into Practice

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. So, I don't know if this has ever, I think it's probably happened to you. Have you ever been, like, going around the house going, like, where are my keys? I can't find my keys. Where are they? And they happen to be right in your hand. Have you ever done that? The answer is right in front of you. And my wife can attest to the man eyes I have. I open the fridge and say, honey, where is the? And it's right in front of me. But I don't see it. The answer is right in front of me and I don't see it. Or maybe, I don't know if you've done this, I heard this. I don't know if it was on America's Funniest Videos, I think it was. But the joke is, or kind of the riddle is, so Cheryl's mom had four daughters. The first was named April, the second May, and the third June. What was the name of the fourth daughter? Cheryl. Because the answer is right in the question. But a lot of people, wait a minute. August? No. June? July? No. You know, it's amazing how we make it complicated when the answer is right in front of us. And I have a feeling that's the same with the words of Jesus. Okay? As Christians, we are notorious for missing the point. And this is the case even from the beginning. You know, Israel had the promises of God and yet they missed the Messiah. And Peter was with Jesus for three years and he missed the whole purpose of the kingdom. You know? It's just amazing how that works. And the Galatian Christians, they had the grace of God. They heard the gospel and were saved by the Spirit through the gospel of God and yet they missed the understanding of grace in their lives. They had no idea. They missed the mark. And I think today, many of the followers of Jesus, we're facing the same struggle. We have the opportunity right before us. We hear the words. We know what it says. But somehow, it just doesn't happen. We miss the whole thing. Jesus says, simply, come follow me. And I have to look at myself and go like, how well am I following him? Or am I just kind of having him trying to tag along with me wherever I go? When you think of the words about Jesus, he calls us to come follow him. And the words about who Jesus is kind of like imitate him, follow him, be like him, apprentice from him, be his disciple. And I think of Jesus himself. The first words that come to your mind when you think of Jesus are? Any of you? Love. Anything else? Peace. Joy. Kindness. Compassion. Courage. Humility. What? The fruits of the Spirit. Actually, the Galatians chapter 5, it says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Those are all attributes or characteristics of Jesus himself and his life. And when we are living in the Spirit, that is what God wants to bring about in our lives too. Right? But when you think of Christians, not Jesus, but Christians. Ah. And you ask Christians about other Christians, you're going to kind of get a mixed bag of things, right? Some good. Some, oh my goodness, this person is so exact. And others, well, you know, they're a little cranky. But the real test comes when you ask people outside of Christianity. People who are not right now followers of Jesus about the followers of Jesus and what you hear. So I've told this before, but I think it's worth repeating. About six years ago, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, they spent three years as they were researching the younger generation. Specifically people who had either been to church or not to church or just younger people in general and what they thought about Christianity. Million people, you know, they just surveyed everybody they could in the younger generations. You know what they said? They said, well, Jesus followers are judgmental, hypocritical, anti-homosexual, too political, old fashioned, out of touch, insensitive and boring. The title of their book was called Un-Christian, and that wasn't for the people outside of the faith. But that's what the people outside of Christianity looked at Christians and said they're being un-Christian. Isn't that amazing? And now you might say, wait a minute. Look at all the good we have done. I can't believe these are gross exaggerations of the issues. I mean, we feed the poor. We visit people in prison. We try to help out anybody in need. I mean, who has taken the banner and really worked in hurricane relief from Irma to Harvey to Michael? It's been the Christian churches, not the federal government, not other organizations, but the Christian churches who have given. And we saw that in our own area around here when Irma struck. It was the Christians who got out there and did so much. But I cannot assume it's just bad press. And I cannot also just say it's a media bias that Christians are treated or looked at like this. The reality is when David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons contacted all these people and said, where do you get this idea that Christians are like th...