 Jesus was not a Christian. I'm sorry to announce that to all you Christians listening to this, and I am one of you, but Jesus was not a Christian. It seems a strange thing to say, doesn't it? But the actual word Christian and the language of Christian and the religion of Christianity was invented by us, not by God, not by Jesus. All religions, all tribes, all groups were invented by men, invented by humans, not by divinity, not by God. And I think it's just worth saying to you in the way I said it so that we remind ourselves as Christians that Jesus is not one of us. Sometimes I think we relate to Jesus as a Christian, instead of relate to him as Jesus. We define and confine and contain him to Christianity. And we relate to him in the same way that we relate to the church and we get mixed up between Jesus and the church. And we start to have a relationship with Jesus in the same way that we have a relationship with the church, i.e. it becomes methodical, it becomes methodical. It becomes systemized, institutionalized. It becomes a time and a place. And that's all religion is, you know, we were designed. I've said this other times, but worth saying again, as I make this point to you, that human beings were designed to be spiritual, not religious. Religion is organized spirituality. Spirituality means you can appreciate and see God in a tree or a flower or a stream or a mountain or somewhere in nature. You can engage and encounter God through that just as much, if not more than you can often in church. That's the difference between between religion and that version of being spiritual and spirituality, which means that you can have a spiritual experience anywhere at any time because you are a spiritual, we are spiritual beings, we are not religious beings. And I think that's another part of the mistake we make in the way that we make God in our image, rather than we allow him to make us in his image when we make him a Christian, when we make him white, when we make him black, when we make him male or we make him female, when we make God a Democrat or a Republican, or in my case, Labour or Conservative in the UK, when we make God, one of our group or we make him one of their group, we are making him in our image. We are becoming the potter and making him the clay rather than we are the clay and he is the potter. He is the maker, the designer, the sculptor, the artist, the shaper and we are the ones that have been painted and shaped and worked on. So Jesus is not a Christian. He is not a joiner. He's not the head of a group. He's not the head of an organization. He's not he's not the superintendent, the district leader, the apostle, the pastor. And I think we sometimes shift psychologically those labels to him as if he's one of the people we call that on earth. He's not. He is bigger than the church. He existed before the church. He will exist after the church. And I'm saying this to you because I don't want you to. And I think, you know, pastoring for 30 years plus I know that I slipped into this blind spot of thinking God was one of us. He is one of me. He's one of our church. He's part of our church. And that denominational exclusivity tribal thing kicks in and I've, you know, walking to that 20 years ago now, well into my pastoring. I didn't figure this out when I stopped pastoring. This genie come out the lamp while I was still pastoring and I'm glad I had another sort of 12 years after that discovery of building a new kind of church around those new versions of me and those new awareness and awakenings in me. So Jesus is not a Christian. You may be a Christian, but I hope you know what you mean by that. I hope you know what you mean is you have chosen to be a follower of Christ and that may include a Christian experience, but it is not only that. It is way bigger than that. Don't make Jesus join your church. Don't confine Jesus to your Christianity. Don't think that you know all theists know about Jesus because you're a Christian and no one else has a valid relationship or perspective or understanding of him on the Christians. I think we Christians and especially the white wing evangelical version of us have given us a bad name. We have made him this ranting, finger pointing, judgmental. He is what I am against God and we've made him in our image and that's not who he is. So Jesus is not a Christian. Now that shocking statement that you heard me say earlier, I hope now you've calmed down and realized is a great wisdom for life for us. Jesus is not a Christian. What a lovely thought. I'm glad he's bigger than that and I want you to be too.