How to Make Friends E3 - Practice
January 21, 2024 • Trey Van Camp • Deuteronomy 5, 2 Kings 21, 2 Kings 22, Matthew 11:28–30
When it comes to developing deep friendships that form and shape us into the image of Jesus, one barrier often stops us: preferences. Rather than commit to a community of people who hold us accountable and build us up, we find it easier to surround ourselves with others who think like, act like, and approve of us. But the people of God have never flourished this way. In https://biblia.com/bible/csb/exod%2020 and https://biblia.com/bible/csb/deut%205, God institutes a set of practices and behaviors (the 10 Commandments) meant to shape and form his people into his image. And when Jesus starts his earthly ministry, he chooses 12 unlikely men who wouldn’t normally get along to reorient their lives on him. For us today, becoming a community of practice means putting aside our preferences, committing to each other no matter how different we are, and reorienting our lives on Jesus.
REST: resistance to Egypt [Sabbath E2]
February 19, 2023 • Trey Van Camp • Exodus 20:1–17, Deuteronomy 5:12–15
The idea of rest seems simple enough. We all want rest, but never seem to get it. Always just outside of our reach, rest seems either something to laugh at, or something to buy. But one of the most radical things Jesus teaches us is that he is able to offer us true rest without requiring us to work more, do more, or have more. When we practice Sabbath, we stop all our work and worry so that we’re able to become people of true rest. Like Israel, we remember that we’ve been saved from the oppressive yolk of productivity, and instead we’ve taken on Jesus’ yolk of ease. We reject that lie that our worth and value come from what we do, and that rest is a commodity we have to earn. In this way, rest is a countercultural rebellion against the powers and systems at war against God and his kingdom. To practice Sabbath is to accept the invitation to rest while living in a world of hurry.