Blessed are the peacemakers

Texts: Matthew 5:9; Romans 16:20; Philippians 4:4-9

1.) Peace is a byproduct of relationship with God

Peace is one third of the kingdom found in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17) I experience peace because the spirit of God lives in me.  The word peace is the greek word eirene which means to be set at one again.  When I am anxious or depressed there is something out of joint in my being.  It could be something physical, mental or spiritual.  Peace helps to realign me with God’s thoughts for me.  This beatitude says that my state of being is that of being a peacemaker and in so doing I will reveal that I am a child of God.  It doesn’t mean that I don’t battle against injustice but the way I battle might be a little different than the world is used to.  Scripture tells me that my battle isn’t against people but rather against what influences people (principalities and powers)  Prayer (conversation with God) is such a powerful tool against demonic influences.  I want to encourage all of us to be a people of prayer.  If we spent as much time praying as we do complaining about our circumstances how much would we see change?  I’d love to give it a try and see what happens, how about you?

2.) Peace helps me to keep my focus on the Kingdom (Philippians 4:4-9)

 Life sometimes speaks louder than than the truth, it easy to lose sight of this as we go about our days.  We tend to live life in reaction to the things that happen to us.  Jesus gave us an important advantage when He, not only, died for us but rose again for us to live with a renewed perspective.  He has given us the advantage of living life in the spirit.  We’ve reduced that to when we choose to focus on Him (typically on Sundays)  But the Spirit is with us at all times.  The spirit gives us access to heaven’s perspective called faith at all times if we want it  When we reduce life down to what we understand we live with a judgmental perspective.  We want justice the way that we see it.  We judge people according to what we see with our limited perspective or what they have done to us.  God’s perspective takes much more into account.  He sees all of us through the eyes of Love.  He is grieved when we look with judgment because even Jesus didn’t condemn the world, He came so that the world would know the Father through Him (John 3:17) As the song “Here is love” says…

On the mount of crucifixion

fountains opened deep and wide;

through the floodgates of God's mercy

flowed a vast and gracious tide.

Grace and love, like mighty rivers,

poured incessant from above,

and heav'n's peace and perfect justice

kissed a guilty world in love.-WIlliam Reese

Paul tells us in Philippians that The peace of God goes beyond our ability to understand and it will guard your heart and your mind.  Faith proves what it sees.  When I see with the eyes of faith the outcome will be that peace will lead me in maintaining my focus on the Kingdom operating in my life.  

3.) Peace is our weapon

Romans 16:20 says that the God of peace will crush Satan under our feet.  That is an interesting phrase.  I would think that the God of war or the God of vengeance or something like that would be more appropriate to do violence to the enemy.  However, keep in mind that the enemy is a bully and the only power he has is the power that we give to him.  Ignoring the devil is actually the best way to defeat him.  That’s why the previous point is so important.  Maintaining our focus on what God recommends will help us to live in peace regardless of circumstance.  I’m not saying it’s easy but I am saying it’s possible.  Let’s use our peace as a weapon against the enemy and His tactics to discourage us.  Let’s see others with Heaven’s perspective so that we can pray the solution over them.  

Blessed are the pure in heart

A Beatitude is an announcement of an existing state.  

Jesus is giving us declarations of who we are in him and the promise that results from that state.

Blessed are the Pure in Heart for they shall see God-Matthew 5:8

1.) How can we be pure in heart

Without having the understanding of what Christ did for us on the cross this beatitude would seem impossible.  Who among us has the capacity to be pure in heart?  However, Let’s remember our earlier definition of beatitude as an announcement of an existing state.  Good News!  Jesus had made me pure in heart so that means I don’t have to do anything right?  Not exactly.  

“There are several Greek verbs for observing.  Greeks have been called “people of the eye.”  Their approach to reality is primarily visual.  But Greek influenced by Hebrew thought is not simply about recording what is visible.  The Hebrew influence requires that what is seen is also understood.  Yeshua is saying that the pure in heart rejoice because they truly see.” Skip Moen PhD

Our understanding that comes from seeing causes us to change the way we make choices.  We see what God sees is best for us and we adjust our choices accordingly.  This is the development of Godly character.

The greek word used for pure is the word “katharos”; it refers to ritual cleansing.  Does that mean we have have to do religious things to make us pure?  Of course not, our righteousness will never measure up.  

“For hundreds of years religious purification rituals dominated Jewish religion.  The distinction between “clean” and “unclean” was so important that it was inseperable from belief in God. Unless a Jew was clean in the ritual sense, he could have no part in the ceremony of worship.”-Skip Moen PhD

2.) New Covenant Context

Bill Johnson makes a great distinction of what happens when we apply the New Covenant to our understanding of purity of heart.  In the Old Testament if you touched a leper you were considered unclean and you would have to perform some ritual of cleansing.  In the New Testament when you touch the leper, the leper is cleansed as demonstrated by Jesus many times.  Jesus came to make all of this practical but it doesn’t mean that I’m just blinding thinking something it is a belief that changes my behavior.  Too often we think that if we know something it is good enough, the message of the New Covenant is that if I know something I’m responsible to model that belief.  

3.) Purity of Heart is a gift

A gift in Hebrew thought is not a possession.  It is a tool.  In order to change things, it has to be used.  Faith grows as it operates on what it has seen.  Seeing what heaven sees should inspire me to change my behavior and resulting choices.  It’s not enough to know it we must do something with the knowledge we’ve received.  

“A pure heart comes from the combination of godly gift and human effort. How do we know this? Because we are called to be like Him, and the only way that can happen is if we act like Him.”-Skip Moen PhD

Blessed are the Merciful

You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for. 

Matthew 5:7 MSG

How blessed you are when you demonstrate tender mercy! For tender mercy will be demonstrated to you.

Matthew 5:7 TPT

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 

Matthew 5:7 NASB

This might seem like a ho hum beatitude.  Yeah, yeah we get it show mercy and get mercy sounds familiar.  You reap what you sow and all that.  I think there is something deeper here that if we look carefully will set us up to be entirely transformed.  

-Sowing and Reaping

You’re blessed if you are merciful because you will receive mercy.  The low hanging fruit of this scripture is that you reap what you sow.  Life presents us with many choices; particularly in the area of our relationships.  People are unpredictable, even the people we know and love well.   We can learn to react to that unpredictability or we can learn to see situations for what they are.  Jaime has been teaching us that there are many factors to our behavior.  While everything impacts us spiritually sometimes our issues start with our body or our souls.  Learning to see what is impacting us and others helps us to treat people better when they are having bad moments.  We take into account the things that they are going through that might potentially impact their behavior.  Learning to be merciful tends to create opportunities for others to show mercy to us as well.  But I believe there is also a deeper level that the Lord is calling us to.

-Mercy triumphs over Judgment

Blind Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus for Mercy, understandable because he was blind and wanted to be healed but I have a feeling it went deeper than this.  In John 9 we read about another blind man, this one had been blind from birth.  The question was asked who sinned, this man or his parents for him to have been afflicted with blindness since birth.  The Jews believed that if you were sick it was because you had done something wrong.  I believe that Blind Bartimaeus was asking for healing by asking for mercy because he probably believed his sin caused his affliction.  Could it be possible that our sins cause us to have physical problems?  Sometimes that is true but not always.  The truth is that even if we don’t have something wrong in our bodies, we all need Mercy.  All of us have sinned, we have all fallen short but the message of Jesus and the new covenant is that by his mercy and through His grace we have been rendered innocent (Justified).  God has redeemed us, He has redeemed our failures through his great mercy for us by faith.  Faith shifts my perspective to God’s perspective.  Now instead of just demonstrating mercy’ I can become it.  This is bigger than sowing and reaping.  It is receiving His inheritance.  

-Mercy vs Grace

Mercy is getting what I don’t deserve.  Grace is getting what He deserves.  We receive grace through His mercy for us.  Grace gives us the ability to do what Jesus says we can do.  Operating in grace is the reality of being seated with Him in Heavenly places.  I believe that God is calling us to live in a new understanding of this grace.  Before the last 3 years I know that I settled into life being comfortable   I relied on things in my life being stable   and predictable but all those things seem to have melted away.  There is really only one thing that has stayed stable throughout all of this.  Jesus is the most stable force we can have in our lives.  His love is constant and sure.  No matter what we face He is always there to comfort us.  We are in a season where I believe he wants to create a heightened awareness of his stability in our lives.  He’s inviting us into a great adventure with Him believing Him for impossibilities.  Our world needs to see the reality of Jesus in our lives.  

Blessed are the Hungry

You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘ You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.

Matthew 5:21-26 NASB

I’m beginning to realize as I teach on the this passage every year that the key to understanding the sermon on the mount is actually in the last part of the chapter.  Jesus is putting everything into context.  He’s taking the entirety of their experience with God and highlighting for them what was important in those interactions.  In the scripture above Jesus is saying the Law says that you shouldn’t murder and if you do you will be legally liable, but I say if you are angry with your brother you will be guilty before the court.  Did you see what He did there?  He said forget murder, if your’e angry with your brother you need to deal with that emotion before it every reaches he level of murder.  He’s saying the standard is what’s going on in your heart, don’t reduce it down to what the law says.  

Another important aspect of this scripture is the value Jesus places on our relationships.  Jesus says that if you are offering something to God and you remember that you have something against your brother go and make it right with your brother before you give your offering.  That’s huge, he’s saying your vertical relationship is as important as your horizontal relationships.  Be at peace with others inasmuch as we are at peace with Him.  

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 

Matthew 5:6 NASB

Kingdom=Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Righteousness is often seems to be hard to define.  I’ve heard it means being rightly related to God.  Jesus said that if our righteousness didn’t surpass that of the Pharisees then we couldn’t enter the kingdom of god.  Seemed like an odd statement considering Jesus had the harshest criticism for the Pharisees.  Israel understood righteousness to be how skilled you were at obeying the law.  If that were the case then the Pharisees were fairly skilled at that, maybe that’s what Jesus was referring to.  However, our ability to be righteous is actually self-righteousness true righteousness was modeled for us by Jesus.  He did only what He saw the Father doing.  In other words His relationship with the Father was the greatest influence in His life.  He did this, on the earth, by staying tuned to the Holy Spirit.  We have the same opportunity, as we talked about last week, according to the book of Colossians we have died and our life is now hidden with Christ in God.  We now have the opportunity to do only what we see Jesus doing to bring glory to the Father.  

We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus because…

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. '

Romans 8:3-4

Just like Jesus our ability to stay in tune with the Holy Spirit helps us to walk in the righteousness of Jesus.  Our hunger and thirst comes from a deep commitment to that relationship above all.  As God jealously desires for his spirit to live within us (James 4:5) so we should desire to grow that relationship.  We were born for this, we have a metabolic function within us that tells us to get food or water and we also have a deep desire to be connected with our creator.  

The good news is that the promise is that we will be satisfied.  

Blessed are the Meek

What blessing comes to you when gentleness lives in you! For you will inherit the earth. 

Matthew 5:5 (The Passion Translation)

Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

Matthew 5:5 NASB

“When you claim nothing as yours, everything will be given to you”-Brian Simmons

1.) What is Meekness?

Meekness is not weakness; perhaps you’ve heard that statement before.  Sometimes in our weakness or adversity we learn to be meek (humble) 

Meekness is power under control.  It can be having a better story but not telling it.  It can be having the ability to solve someone else’s problem but letting them solve it on their own as you remain supportive.  

Meekness is restraining our strength in order to grow our relationships.  It’s being self-aware enough to know when you can lend that strength and when you need to ask for help.  You know how to be present in your friendships, when to give advice and when to cover in silence.  

2.) Inheriting the Earth

The church hasn’t really sought to inherit the earth because we’ve been taught through church eschatology that God wants to destroy it.  

God is a God of redemption, He loves his creation including those who have rejected Him.  We are not to be conformed to this world’s way of thinking but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we can prove the will of God to these people. (Romans 12:1,2) He did not come to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:17) 

What if God actually wants us to see the world we live in redeemed to its original purpose?  How can we as believers embrace that purpose and influence our communities with the message of hope that the gospel brings.  

3.) Jesus and the Kingdom

Jesus taught the kingdom more than any other topic.  His purpose was to teach the kingdom according to Luke 4:43.  The reason is that He wanted to empower us to bring his Kingdom to the earth as it is in heaven.  He invested that Kingdom in us through the person of the Holy Spirit.  The same spirit that allowed Jesus to do all that He saw the Father doing.  The spirit that will enable us to do greater things than He did, not because we are greater but because He has put His greatness in us.  The kids get to reveal the greatness of their father and he’s invited us into the family business. 

Blessed are they who Mourn

Text: Colossians 3:1-4; Matthew 5:3

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. 

Colossians 3:1-4

Jesus didn’t just die for us; He died as us.  We have been crucified along with him.  We are dead to who we were and alive to who we are.  This is why we now live with a perspective shift.  We now are to see through the eyes of faith.   Faith is heaven’s perspective.  The encouragement Paul gives us in this verse is to maintain heaven’s focus in our circumstances, relationships and in our thoughts about ourselves.  Just in case we forgot he reiterates it again.  You have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  This is so that everything that you are is found in Christ.  We live in a world that tries to define us through all kinds of means; how we look, what we wear, who we love, where we go to church, what political party we support and on and on it goes.  Paul is encouraging us to only define ourselves one way, what does Jesus say about you?

I started with these scriptures today because as we look at the beatitudes it is important for us to realize that the values Jesus is outlining for us are made possible by what He has accomplished for us.  Many of us have grown up with a works mentality approach to spirituality.  We receive from God based on whether we perform well enough.  But Paul goes to great lengths to teach us that we receive from him through grace which is not earned it is given.  This is important as we look at the beatitudes.  If we live with a works mentality we will see what Jesus is teaching us as directives to be performed.   I choose to be poor in spirit therefore I will receive the kingdom because of my choice.  While there is some truth to that, the greater truth is that I can only choose that because Jesus chose me first.  I can be poor in spirit because of my relationship with Jesus.  It is a relationship that greatly influences my choices and because of that I receive what Jesus has freely given me.  

Posture and Promise

I want to suggest to you that each beatitude has a posture that the believer takes and the promise that results from that.  The first part of taking the posture is that my perspective is to always find myself in Him, what does Jesus say about me.  That will help me as I make choices in my life.  What does Jesus, the most influential person in my life think of me and what I’m facing.  That is the posture I take to ensure that live in the promise.

So let’s look at today’s beatitude…

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted NASB

What delight comes to you when you wait upon the Lord! For you will find what you long for. 

Matthew 5:4 (the Passion Translation)

On first glance these look like two different verses but the word for mourn in the greek and the word for wait in Hebrew are very similar in meaning. 

As translated from the Hebrew Matthew. (See also Ps. 27:14.) The Greek is “mourn (grieve).” The Hebrew word for “wait” and for “mourn” is almost identical.

(Wait for the Lord ; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord-Psalms 27:14)

Posture:

I go to Him for my needs.  Mourning would be included in that as well.  When I am in need He is my source.  He has everything I need.  

Promise: we will receive comfort; we will find what we are looking for.

Digging Wells

We have spent this last year really returning to what we love and focusing our attention in those areas.  At BSSD I have a spiritual experience class and I want the students to spend time in different ways exploring the way God speaks and what He does.  Because I am not good in every area, I frequently will bring someone else in for a month to teach the students something that is in their wheelhouse.  This last Monday Chris came in and she is taking them through dance.  Dance is one of  my favorite things to send students through because it is the thing we are often most afraid of and so you don’t learn the power of it.

1. When I met Chris and dance started to be a thing in our movement, there was something that God did in Chris through the dance.  This last week as she started taking students through it, I saw that light up in her again.  The Lord told me you are redigging wells.  I decided to go look up what happened when Isaac re dug wells and what God was doing in that time with Israel.  I felt like it is relevant to today and also to our breakthrough.

1.  26 There was a famine in the land, as bad as the famine during the time of Abraham. And Isaac went down to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar.

2. 2-5 God appeared to him and said, “Don’t go down to Egypt; stay where I tell you. Stay here in this land and I’ll be with you and bless you. I’m giving you and your children all these lands, fulfilling the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I’ll make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky and give them all these lands. All the nations of the Earth will get a blessing for themselves through your descendants. And why? Because Abraham obeyed my summons and kept my charge—my commands, my guidelines, my teachings.”

1. The first thing that I noticed was that God cared about the place where Isaac lived.  Isaac was in the time before Moses and before they left Egypt and went to the promised land.  

1. Marty and I moved to the coast because of a word that my dad gave 25 years ago that said that revival is coming to the US and it’s starting on the coast.  My dad said you need to move there to be a part of what God is going to do.  We are still here I think because this is an area that God has a plan for and that we have a grace for.  If you look at your Bible, you will see God strategically places people in areas to make things happen.  You will see Moses, Joshua, David, Esther, Daniel, Joseph, Jesus, Paul etc.  Each of these people were strategically placed in an area and time for a nation changing purpose.

1. People wonder why I don’t leave California.  I don’t leave because I feel like Humboldt County is a place that God has given me so it doesn’t matter what is happening around, it matters that I bloom where I am planted.

2. God does crazy miracles when we listen.  He makes the impossible possible.  He made Isaac prosper in the middle of a drought because of the covenant that God made with Abraham and because Isaac stayed where he was supposed to go.

1. God has made a covenant with me and because of that covenant I can trust wherever He leads and I can expect the grace to do what He asks.  I should expect to prosper in the desert.

2. I am put in Humboldt for a purpose and I plan to prosper.

3. Righteous men find favor with unrighteous men when righteous men go where God asks.  This to me is important because I need to start aligning myself with God.  It doesn’t matter who is in charge.  I can flourish under anyone.  Isaac flourished under Abimelech who was the king of the Philistines.

3. Isaac leaves Gerar and moves right outside.  17-18 So Isaac left. He camped in the valley of Gerar and settled down there. Isaac dug again the wells which were dug in the days of his father Abraham but had been clogged up by the Philistines after Abraham’s death. And he renamed them, using the original names his father had given them.

1. I feel like this is the season we are in.  When Marty and I first took over in Fortuna, we dug or camped around some wells that have been a part of this church for forever.  We went into a season where we forgot what was important and we are resetting those.

1. In Nehemiah, God had them build the temple and then the walls and the gates.  Basically Jesus first, and then the walls and the gates to protect what comes in and out.  We usually spend a lot of time making sure things in the spirit realm and people are protecting and that we aren’t leaving gates open to being attacked.  Gates and walls are playing defense.  Digging wells is playing offense.  

1. Digging wells is different.  It has nothing to do with protection but has everything to do with life and community.  The well is the place that I go to sustain life.  I don’t go through a gate for that, I go to a well.  

2. Wells in the old testament were the community center because you had to go there every day to get water.  Wells were little what sustained cities.  Wells represent a healthy community.

3. I feel like God is having us redig the wells that were given to us from the past and also wells we dug for ourselves.  Chris dug that well for herself because it represented taking territory, breaking off old things and a place of freedom.  I watched her Tuesday start taking dirt out of that well.

1. Do not be surprised if you start having a desire to do things that you did in the past that were monuments for you.  In this way it’s not us going backwards, it’s us reclaiming life.

2. Some of the wells I see us redigging are the presence and the time to be present.  

3. I see us digging worship up again and that’s not just the worship team but this was a house where it didn’t matter if you sang, you loved worship.  

4. We have a well of disciplining people and discipleship schools. 

5. This church always had a well of family and community.  When you came to church you came because you enjoyed who was with you.  You raised your kids together.  You spent your summers together.  It was a tight community.  

6. This church always raised great leaders and some of those leaders would leave and create or lead other movements in other areas.

1. These are all wells that I feel like are places that I want to take the dirt out of and find water again.

4. Isaac then starts to dig new wells and it doesn’t go well.  Every well they find water someone else takes it.  Finally Isaac digs a well and no one says a word.  

1. Isaac didn’t give up.  He kept going after new things.  I think this is also where we are at.  We’ve had so many changes and dug lots of new things that just didn’t work out like we thought.  It has felt a lot of times like maybe we have already missed God.  I think the answer is to refuse to give up until you find peace.

5. 25 Isaac built an altar there and prayed, calling on God by name. He pitched his tent and his servants started digging another well.

6. 26-27 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his advisor and Phicol the head of his troops. Isaac asked them, “Why did you come to me? You hate me; you threw me out of your country.”

7. 28-29 They said, “We’ve realized that God is on your side. We’d like to make a deal between us—a covenant that we maintain friendly relations. We haven’t bothered you in the past; we treated you kindly and let you leave us in peace. So—God’s blessing be with you!”

8. 30-31 Isaac laid out a feast and they ate and drank together. Early in the morning they exchanged oaths. Then Isaac said good-bye and they parted as friends.

9. 32-33 Later that same day, Isaac’s servants came to him with news about the well they had been digging, “We’ve struck water!” Isaac named the well Sheba (Oath), and that’s the name of the city, Beersheba (Oath-Well), to this day.

Isaac found favor with Abimelech again.  This time Abimelech seeks Him out because He realized that he lost blessing when he asked Isaac to leave.  He realized he was better off with Isaac than without him.

I believe that this is where we are headed.  The world has hated the church.  I believe that we are about to become friends with the world and they are going to want me in their space because they realized that when I am around, I bring blessings.  This to me is the ultimate sign of following God and loving well.  When those who do not have the same values as you do actually seek to have you around because they are better with you than without you.

4 Ingredients of Healthy Relational Soil

I want to take some time to set the stage for what we will be pursuing as a church this year and quite honestly for years to come. Jaime and I have been impacted greatly by a book called “Other Half of Church” by Jim Wilder and Michel Hendricks. I highly recommend purchasing this book, it is very life changing. As an introduction the book explores the idea that in the church we minister primarily to the Left or rational side of people's brains. We rely heavily on teaching, training and tools. We try to educate people into change. Unfortunately that is an incomplete approach to transformation. In order to have really lasting change we must take a whole brain approach to transformation. Your right brain is more relationally focused and actually very important part of developing our identity and character. With this in mind here are four ingredients that we can add to our relational soil that will help us to be an emotionally healthy church.

1.) Belonging (Joy)

Joy: what I feel when I see the sparkle in someone’s eye that conveys “I’m happy to be with you

Joy in the Greek means calm delight.  It is the assurance of belonging and the invitation to connect.

Our brains desire joy more than any other thing.” As we go through our day, our right brains are scanning our surroundings, looking for people who are happy to be with us.

Numbers 6:24–26

The LORD bless you

and keep you;

the LORD make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you;

the LORD turn his face toward you

and give you peace.

God’s face is connected with joy in the Bible.

Brain science reveals that this joy sensation is crucial for emotional and relational development. Our brain looks specifically to the face of another person to find joy, and this fills up our emotional gas tank. The face is key. When a Bible translation erases the picture of God’s face, our brains do not react as strongly.

1. Joy is primarily transmitted through the face (especially the eyes) and secondarily through voice. 

2. Joy is relational. It is what we feel when we are with someone who is happy to be with us. Joy does not exist outside of a relationship. 

3. Joy is important to God and to us.

2. Connection (Hesed- our relational glue)

Jim Wilder used the Hebrew word hesed to describe what neuroscientists call attachment.

Over and over, he emphasized the importance of our attachments to each other. Attachment is an essential soil nutrient for forming our character.

Hesed describes something we find in the brain and in the Bible.

Our brains draw life from our strongest relational attachments to grow our character and develop our identity. Who we love shapes who we are.

Our brains are designed to use our attachments to form our character. 

This Hebrew word carries the sense of an enduring connection that brings life and all good things into a relationship. Hesed is a kind and loyal care for the well-being of another.

hesed attachment has real sticking power. Without strong relational attachments, our soil remains depleted of a nutrient that is essential for growing character.

Perhaps the biggest surprise emerging from brain-scan studies has been that, for our brain, identity develops through attachments. Joyful, secure attachments build a good brain. Fearful or weak attachments build a bad brain. When we say “a bad brain,” we mean an identity center that damages our relationships when we are upset. Character develops through relationships—hesed relationships

Not only is love mentioned often in the New Testament (348 times), agape/hesed is the dominant feature of a community living in God’s kingdom. Jesus came to establish a hesed community on earth. This starts when God forms a hesed bond with us in Christ. John writes, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

3.) Core Values (Group Identity-what kind of people are we?)

The church over the centuries has appealed to creeds. Creeds answer the question, As followers of Jesus, what do we believe? Group identity statements are similar, but they define character. Instead of focusing primarily on what we believe, group identity answers the questions, As followers of Jesus, what kind of people are we? How do the people of God act?

Our brains were designed to respond to group identity in order to help us act like “our people.” Our right brain contains the control center that interprets our group identity and uses it to shape our inner character.

In our misdirected emphasis on willpower, we read the group identity Scriptures in the Sermon on the Mount and treat them as rules that we must follow. We think that we learn to obey Jesus by trying hard. When this does not work, we grit our teeth and try harder. This was my strategy for most of my Christian life. If we look at Jesus, He naturally reacted to His surroundings with behavior that exhibited kingdom living. He was not gritting His teeth. His character flowed from His heart.

The family fragmentation in our society weakens the development of group identity in the culture at large. I am no longer told who I am in a multigenerational community. These changes in our society lead to a shallow identity. When Christian communities follow this cultural trend, we also end up with shallow identities. Instead of standing out as lights in a dark world, we blend in.

One way a community can build a strong character identity is by speaking regularly to each other about what kind of people we are.

4.) Lending strength when things break down (Healthy Correction)

WHEN THE RELATIONAL soil of our community has been fortified with joy, hesed, and group identity, we really grow.

The fourth building block of healthy soil corrects our group identity where it has broken down.

The fourth soil ingredient targets malfunctions.

character lies at the intersection of identity and values.

our character draws from two libraries:

(1) our life history of observed responses of how to act, and

(2) the values of “our people.

In order to improve our behavior, we need to change our values and update our stored examples of how our people act. We cannot change our values directly. We must get them from our community, our group identity.

I need a Christ-centered hesed community to help me act more like Jesus. This community must have people who are more mature than I, because I need to update my library with their better examples.

Healthy correction is always an invitation to return to our true identity and start acting like ourselves again.

By sharing our stories of being corrected, we are adding two ingredients to our relational soil at once. When I share my character flaws, I am sharing a weakness, which increases our hesed. At the same time, I am giving you an example of eagerly accepting correction. 

I know this is a lot to take in and I’ve only scratched the surface in explaining these things that the book actually does a way better job at. I also know that this is going to take time to implement, but I’m very excited to begin the process of working on healthy community with a great bunch of people. I look forward to the journey we are going to take together.