Chocolate covered onion. Pudding made with mayonnaise. Lemonade with salt instead of sugar.
How do those sound? Disgrossting!!!
But they all have this in common: they are NOT what they appear to be.
That’s the premise of our show for the second week in the Now Streaming series. Today, we’re looking at The Good Place with Kristen Bell.
This is a 4-season series and there is SOOOOOO MUCH to unpack for one message. We’d be here all day if we tried to hit it all at once or even just one season. So, we aren’t. And you’ll have to tune in if you want to see it all. I’ll try not to spoil it for you.
Kristen’s character, Eleanor Shellstrop, dies and goes to the “good place.” We quickly discover that she is “not supposed to be there” as Michael (the good place neighborhood architect) lays out for her how things work and the way she got there.
Simply put, a person’s entire life is weighed and measured by deeds. Every action has a point valuation. And IF the accumulative good points outweigh the accumulative bad points, you’re in.
We tend to think of eternity in this way and that if we are ‘good enough’ then we GET to go to heaven for eternity. I hear this at funerals frequently or even in conversations with people who see someone as genuinely ‘good’ and automatically assume their spiritual condition.
This reminds me of the rich young man in Mark 10:17-31 who comes to Jesus and asks what’s the measuring system to get into heaven. He wants to know what he has to do. Jesus throws out a short list of the commandments: don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t defraud, and honor your father and mother.
These are the last 6 of the 10 commandments…and they ALL have to do with one’s relationship with others. They all have to do with one’s actions in the world.
The man says he has kept them his whole life. He’s a GOOD person. But Jesus comes back saying he LACKS one thing. Then Jesus tells him to SELL all his possessions and give to the poor.
Jesus tells him he LACKS something and then says to get RID of EVERYTHING!!!
This is significant because it speaks to how our eternal life is attached to something other than good deeds and obviously money. It is about the first four commandments. It’s about trusting God. It’s about faith in Jesus MORE than anything on this earth and goes way beyond anything we can DO!
The Good Place is full of terrible afterlife connotations and mistruths for Bible believing Christians and there are so many things we could look at, but this hits right away and is a major misconception I see in our world today.
The other preposterous notion that Eleanor has once she’s there is that she can make a change after death and be good enough to stay. The problem here is that we don’t have that luxury so it is up to our time spent while on earth.
Good deeds are great. But they are not the same as following Jesus. Life in Christ will cause us to live a certain way and do good things. Our faith will affect our actions. But we can’t substitute actions for our faith.
I have always struggled with this idea that I have to earn God’s grace and forgiveness. I have thought much of my life that I must pay for my sins and make up for my mistakes. God has had to work way harder than He should have to convince me that nothing I can do will make Him love me more or less. He’s had to really be creative to convince me that my sins have already been paid for and my response is not to pay Him back, but to pay attention to His word and put my faith in Jesus.
So, where’s your faith? In your deeds? In your stuff? In your finances?
Are you putting too much trust in your worldly position, power, or possessions?
Are you working off your debt? Trying to earn God’s favor? Doing good to feel better?
Stop!
While the Good Place is not what it seems, heaven is for real, and we can begin living in the kingdom of God right now! Jesus says, “Repent, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt 4:17)
#ChocolatePuddingWithMayonnaise
#TheGoodPlace
#NowStreaming
#RestoringWholenessOfLife
Brett
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