Living the Jesus-Shaped Life: Upward, Inward, Outward

And so as we talk about this concept of Jesus inviting us into abundant life, I think the best person to learn from, to do this with, is Jesus himself. If he is the way, the truth, and the life, maybe learning how to do it his way is the way we can live with greater peace, greater love, greater joy, and greater purpose in our life. [00:38:15] (23 seconds)  #FollowJesusWay

Jesus, up to this point, has been living a pretty ordinary life. Nobody really knows him. He's been studying to be a rabbi. He's been a carpenter, working in the family business. And then when he starts his ministry, it doesn't start with him healing people. It doesn't start with him saying, hey, check this out. I'm the most awesome person you've ever seen. It doesn't start with him making an Instagram following. He doesn't make a YouTube video. That's not how Jesus starts the program. It starts with him getting baptized. [00:43:23] (30 seconds)  #MinistryBeginsWithBaptism

``It doesn't matter. God is pleased in Jesus because he loves Jesus. God sees Jesus as his beloved son, not from what Jesus has done, but because it's his son. You might have a a son or a daughter or a nephew or a a a little one in your life who you love, and there's just something about them where it's like, I just love you. You can't do anything. You can barely hold your head up. Every time I turn around, you're trying to, like, knock something off the counter and bash your head in. I don't know why toddlers do that, but that's just how it goes. And but there's still just something in you that I delight in this person. I love this person. I'm crazy about this person. That's how God feels about Jesus in this moment. [00:45:01] (44 seconds)  #GodIsCrazyAboutJesus

The Jesus shaped life is really this this kinda triangle that has three dimensions. And the first dimension of a thriving life, of an abundant life, of a life that looks like Jesus, the master of it all, is a life where we have an upward connection to our father, the father God. And what we see here in the book of Mark is this reminder that we don't climb up the pyramid to get to God. Part of what Jesus has shown us is that God has come down to us. He climbs down the ladder. He climbs down the pyramid. He comes to you to sit with you in the mud, in the muck, in the grossness to be near to you because he loves you. Jesus has done nothing to earn the love of God here, and God's crazy about him. [00:46:23] (49 seconds)  #JesusShapedTriangle

Jesus moves from a place where he's spending time with God. He's in love with God. God's in love with him. He's staying connected to God, and then he begins going out, and he's sharing the good news of the kingdom. Things could be different. God's crazy about you. God loves you. Since God's kingdom is showing up, things can be different. Where there was fear and where there was hate, there can now be peace and joy and love. [00:50:37] (24 seconds)  #KingdomChangesEverything

And I think this really communicates this other dimension of what an abundant Jesus shaped life looked like. The upward dimension, the inward dimension, and the demon casting dimension. I'm kidding. That's not the third one. The outward dimension. Jesus has spent time with the father. Jesus has developed a community of faith around him. And out of his life with God and his life with other believers on the journey, Jesus begins connecting with a world that needs the love of God. He moves from a place of receiving and receiving to a place of expression where he is expressing the love of God both in the community of faith and in the community around him. [00:58:07] (47 seconds)  #ThreeLegsOfAbundance

We see this like wildfire in the book of Acts that the church begins to expand all over the world so much so that Rome starts persecuting Christians. Why? Because their life with God and their life with each other bubbled out of the church building and into the community. And can I just say, church, that these three different elements are like three legs of the stool of abundant life? You take one of these legs away, and you're not going to be balanced enough to be where you need to be. The abundant life, the Jesus shaped life, the life of abundance as according to Jesus is one where there is a connection with God, there's a connection with a community of faith, and there's connect connection with an outside world that needs Jesus. [00:58:55] (51 seconds)  #ChurchOutIntoCommunity

If we want to learn how to live a life that is abundant and thriving and full of purpose, we gotta learn it from the source. We gotta learn it from the guy. And the path to an abundant life is found by following Jesus into a Jesus shaped life. [01:01:08] (16 seconds)  #LearnFromJesus