Freak Show Series Week 1

Freak Show Series Week 1 Our Freakish Need to Be Loved Lesson Objective – Students need to leave the teaching moved to examine their life and how they are acting out on their need to be loved.

Welcome to the Uprising. We are pretty stoked that you guys are here. Whether you have been a part of Gateway for a long time or you just walked in the door for the first time we just want to say that we are happy to see you. We’re starting a new series today called the Freak Show. I will never forget the time in my life as a child that I went to the State Fair of Texas. Growing up in Dallas it was a big deal to go to the state fair. In fact, all of the schools in Dallas would have designated fair days. You would get a free ticket to the state fair the day before and then the following day you didn’t have to go to school. That was pretty cool back then. At the fair it was ridiculously expensive to ride the rides and play cheesy games on the carnival midway but there were a lot of people. One year my friends and I decided to go to the Freak Show. The Freak Show was a collection of people who performed wild acts or who had oddities that they were willing to display for money. I don’t know if they still have a Freak Show at the fair but at the turn of the century they were everywhere. When I went to the Freak Show they had a tent that you went to where a lady was going to turn into an ape. That’s right I said an ape. She was called ape woman. Pretty creative name, huh? Anyway, when you walked into the room all the lights were out and a man dressed like he was going to a safari came out and began to weave this crazy story about the girl they found in the Amazon. Inside a cage to the left of him was ape woman. She was average height, slender, almost the girl next door type. Suddenly the music began to play and the woman began twisting and contorting. I was getting nervous. They filled her cage with smoke and that’s when her screams turned into grunts. Everything was shaking and the front row started to back up a bit. All of the sudden the bars snapped and a hairy ape came charging out of the cage. I tore up out of there like a nuclear bomb went off and I had only a few seconds to hit a ditch and cover my head. It scared the living daylights out of me. TRANSITION

Well that’s what happened back then but that’s not what’s going to happen over the next three weeks. In fact I don’t want you or anyone else for that matter turning into and ape or showing me how you’re double jointed, displaying your freaky birth mark, or swallowing fire. But what we are wanting to do in this series is talk about the “FREAK SHOW” of our lives. If today your life was a tent and the whole world could see everything inside of you, the way you think, the things you’re after, and even your secrets, how would that look to everyone? I don’t know about you but for me I would have to say that it would be an all out freak show of issues, drama, thoughts, and hungers that make me do freaky things. That is what this series is all about. Right now let’s talk about the first freak show thing we all have in common that makes us want to do freaky things. IN THE FREAK SHOW OF LIFE OUR NEED TO BE LOVED IS ONE OF THE PRIMARY REASONS WHY WE MIGHT DO FREAKY THINGS. We all want to be loved right? We want to matter to someone or something. Some of us have this feeling a little bit but a lot of us have this desire in off the chart crazy ways. In fact if the big top of our life were opened up we might could charge people to see the chaos and freaky things we think about ourselves and others because of this one need t0 be loved. The Wayward son had it. I want to read this story to you out of the Bible. The Bible is a book kind of like other books out there with exception to the fact that it claims to come from God. A lot of people have tried to deny that claim or dismiss what the Bible says. However you think about it doesn’t matter as much as just being willing to agree that it is a pretty powerful book. It has sold more copies than any other book in existence. Hundreds of scholars, archeologists, and historians have tried to find error in the places, people, and events that it names. A good portion of it does require faith but in everything that the Bible says about kings, cities, rulers, customs, and battles history and science has only proven to support the Bible more than tear it down, in fact, even Jesus Christ was written about by the Romans and Egyptians during that same time and they didn’t even believe in Christianity at the time. That is why when it comes to life, God, relationships, truth, and wisdom the Bible is at least worth a good honest look at. That being said I want to share with you a story in the Bible Jesus told. Luke 15: 11-24 11-12Then he said, "There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, 'Father, I want right now what's coming to

me.' 12-16"So the father divided the property between them. It wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. 17-20"That brought him to his senses. He said, 'All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I'm going back to my father. I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.' He got right up and went home to his father. 20-21"When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: 'Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.' 22-24"But the father wasn't listening. He was calling to the servants, 'Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We're going to feast! We're going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!' And they began to have a wonderful time. The Wayward son went all out FREAK SHOW for the world to see. It’s funny isn’t it when you hear that story you almost have to re-read it to get every ounce of what was going on. The son was so fed up with being at home and living in his town that he longed to get out. He started getting freaky about love, finding love, and being loved. Follow with me as I state the obvious. Let’s say you come from a home that is completely wonderful. You may not have everything you want but you have everything you need. When I was a child I never really knew that my mom was borderline poor. She worked really hard as a single parent to put food on the table. When I look back I realize how selfish I was. I had the $100 pair of shoes, latest clothes, and hottest games. I didn’t feel loved because I had stuff but what I noticed was that I started looking at stuff and how other people lived and as I got older I compared to the way I was living. If you’ve ever heard of the term, “the grass is always greener on the other side” then you know what I mean. Some students say to themselves, “She has more friends than me.” Or “He has a sweet ride.” Or “I wish I had parents like them.” That energy that comes from looking at what makes other people happy and not being happy with

what you have begins to eat away at you. You start thinking that if you don’t have those things or feel that way then you’re missing out. Love gets twisted. Lines get blurred and satisfaction just gets harder and harder to have an hold for you own. Some people are so freaky about being loved or feeling loved that they are willing to try anything or do anything for it. They will even accept poor substitutes or believe the lie that love is how many friends you have, the type of clothes you wear, or a feeling you get when you’re physical with someone. But that’s not love. That’s not going to hold you up like real love will. It won’t fill that empty longing you have to be known, cared for, happy, and totally at peace with things. In fact, what ends up happening is that you have to get more and more. Taking a look around and only thinking about what he didn’t have or hadn’t tried drove the wayward son to go postal in the FREAK SHOW. He basically tells his father, “You’re dead to me.” After all you only get an inheritance when someone has died. Can you imagine that day? “Dad. I want my inheritance now. I’m tired of you, this life, the family, and everything else. I don’t want to wait until I can make a life for myself. I want it now. Give me what I deserve. I’m leaving.” What happens next is a FREAK SHOW for sure. Believing he would feel happy, find love, and significance Jesus says the son blew all his jack on partying. He filled his days and nights with whatever he thought would make him satisfied. He had the newest wheels, hottest clothes, and probably a different chick every night. The story goes that a horrible famine comes on the land. It’s a natural disaster. Food prices go up, taxes, clothes, everything is in short supply. In fact it got so bad the wayward son ran out of cash. The only job in town is to clean the pin of a pig farmer. By the way, he gets no money but instead is allowed to eat the pig leftovers. EVERYONE GETS DESPERATE There is not one of you in this room that hasn’t wanted something so bad that you were willing to do anything to get it. Lots of times when you do you find out it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. With love we want to ask you, “Where are you going to get it and how is that working for you? Are you taking poor substitutes? Are you trying to find it in only things that end up hurting and destroying you?” NOT EVERYONE WAKES UP The wayward son finally realizes how he’s screwed up. He looks at

himself and says, “The lowest employee in my father’s farm had it better than I have it now.” He had to ask himself, “What am I doing and what have I come to?” He finally wakes up and realizes he didn’t find what he was looking for because he had it all along. This is when he heads back home to beg his father’s forgiveness. Not everyone wakes up. For the wayward son his dad who truly loves him welcomes him back with open arms. Some people never get to this point. They believe that if they just spend more money or get a better relationship, friend, reputation, or everything else for that matter that they will finally be happy, loved, and cared for. No matter how much they try or how perfect everything looks on the outside it’s just a crazy FREAK SHOW on the inside. HOW IS THAT WORKING FOR YOU, ME, US? So right now take a look under the big top. Some of us are filled with the weirdest and strangest issues, drama, and stress that anyone could ever imagine. We’re trying to be loved but instead we feel like we’re in the FREAK SHOW. Are you trying to find love and happiness in cheap thrills and shallow things? How is that working for you? Are you eating the leftovers of crappy lies and counter-fit promises? I hate giving bad news please don’t think I am judging you. I want for you, me, our leaders, and everyone here to take an honest look at life and ask themselves, “Have I really found love?” If you’re hurting today we would love to talk to you about it. We promise to listen more than we speak. But everyone one of us here I need you to come back. For the next two weeks we want bring all of this out of the tent for a reason. We want to acknowledge the FREAK SHOW and the freaky things we do for a reason.

Let’s pray and be dismissed.