Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] As a pastor for a lot of years, one of the things I've come to expect is that people are very willing to give you their opinions about the church.
[00:00:11] Not always negative, but oftentimes they're willing to give a critique, especially if they've chosen to leave the church and to no longer be a part of the church. So in my mind, I've always kind of got these reasons that people have kind of this running survey in my mind. But what can be helpful is groups like Pew Research. They do a lot of this survey and work for us.
[00:00:34] Over the last couple of decades, there's been challenges in and around church involvement in the United States. Between 1999 and 1920 or 2020, you know what I meant.
[00:00:50] Church membership went from 70% to 45%.
[00:00:56] The first time in the history of the United States that that number fell below a majority.
[00:01:02] Why?
[00:01:04] Why are people leaving the church now? Oftentimes, I think you would imagine, well, they just stopped believing.
[00:01:11] But for many people, not believing is not the reason that they've left.
[00:01:17] Some of the things that Pew talked about that I hear over and over is people talk about, I practice my faith differently now.
[00:01:26] I practice my faith privately. I'm spiritual, but I don't want the church.
[00:01:34] And some people are just very honest. They've had very negative experiences in and around the church. Sometimes they'll say things like, I just never really found the church that fits for me, that meets my needs. Sometimes they just find it unhelpful. Like, I don't find the sermons wrong, relevant for my life.
[00:01:54] Sometimes people will just say, I just felt absolutely unwelcome when I showed up.
[00:02:01] And then there's the normal critiques. The church is hypocritical. It's judgmental, Too focused on money, too focused on rules, too focused on politics.
[00:02:12] Oftentimes what you hear from people is they're just busy.
[00:02:17] Their priorities in life have changed. You know, there's kids, travel, sports, and there's things that I want to do on the weekend that don't include church attendance.
[00:02:27] And it's always so interesting to me in a town that's small like this. I will run into people every once in a while that were around Journey in one season of their life. And I see them, and I just assume that they've started attending another church in our town. But when I talk with them, they just quit attending.
[00:02:44] Some of them will say, I watch online, I watch online. I'm still connected.
[00:02:50] But there are so many people that are actually leaving the church, and I Know, you're, you're sitting here, so you're like, bob, you're preaching to the choir. We are here.
[00:03:00] Yes, you are here.
[00:03:03] For now.
[00:03:05] What is going to keep you here?
[00:03:09] Why.
[00:03:10] Why do you think that the church is necessary?
[00:03:14] Or do you.
[00:03:15] Why do you think that the church is relevant for your life?
[00:03:19] Or do you. What was Jesus thinking when he sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and launched this church into the world?
[00:03:30] That's what we're going to be talking about this fall as we study the book of Ephesians.
[00:03:37] Because Ephesians is God's vision for the church, God's picture of who we are to be together as followers of him. When we actually take up the title of this series, Becoming who We Are as the Church of Jesus Christ, what we're going to learn is that our growing up is part of God's vision for his church.
[00:04:07] We need to grow up.
[00:04:10] And the message today, what I want to do simply is just lay a foundation for you that will get your mind around what is the big picture message of the book of Ephesians.
[00:04:21] Because Paul, in the book of Ephesians, he uses this language of growing up to help us understand how we to be, how we are to become who we are.
[00:04:35] Ephesians, chapter four, starting in verse 11, it says, so Christ. Oh, so Christ.
[00:04:45] This is all about Jesus. This is about his church. He himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and the teachers.
[00:04:54] He gave gifts to the people that are in this room to function in those different kinds of ways. Why?
[00:05:01] To equip.
[00:05:04] He wants to give us something through the church to equip his people for works of service so that, meaning, this is why, this is the result that we're looking for. So that the body of Christ that is the church that is us, may be built up.
[00:05:28] Jesus wants us to be built up. He wants us to grow up until, how will we know when we're there? We will reach unity.
[00:05:42] We will be connected.
[00:05:44] Our lives will be connected together. There will be a unity in our faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God. We will understand clearly together who Jesus is and what it is that he's done for us. And we will become mature.
[00:06:02] We will grow up.
[00:06:05] And what does maturity look like? It looks like attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
[00:06:14] Well, Paul is simply trying to say, when we do, what the church is to accomplish is that we will actually together as individuals and together look more like Jesus.
[00:06:29] Equip, build up, mature, grow up.
[00:06:35] Become like Christmas.
[00:06:42] But here's the challenge.
[00:06:45] Church can be difficult.
[00:06:50] Can I get an amen?
[00:06:52] Amen. Church can be difficult.
[00:06:56] In fact, I would just say this. For many Christians, church being a part of a church is the most difficult part for them of being a Christian.
[00:07:09] And that's why, friends, the statistics are what they are why so many people drop out of the church.
[00:07:16] Or maybe they don't drop out completely, but they just kind of check in every once in a while. They come occasionally and when they do come, they tend to just be on the periphery.
[00:07:32] What the statistics tell us is that those people that are deeply engaged in the life of the church, warts and all, all the problems included, that number is shrinking over time.
[00:07:50] That's what we've got to understand and to deal with. And let me just say this.
[00:07:55] The statistics are no better for pastors.
[00:08:00] In the last five years, the number of pastors that are exiting the ministry, they're just saying, I don't want to lead. This thing called the church is growing over time. They've called it the Great Resignation.
[00:08:15] Pastors are aging out and we don't have young pastors that are coming in to replace them.
[00:08:23] They don't want to lead the church. What do we do? Why Jesus?
[00:08:28] What were you trying to accomplish with this thing that we call the church?
[00:08:35] Here's the short answer. The short answer is this.
[00:08:39] Jesus sent his Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to indwell the individual lives and the community of people called the church so that the church would be a light in a world of darkness.
[00:08:58] That that church full of the Holy Spirit would bring life into a world of death. That's what Jesus wanted to accomplish through what we call the church.
[00:09:14] To put it another way, the church friends it is the centerpiece of Jesus strategy to change this world.
[00:09:23] Because the Holy Spirit, when he moves in and through his church, it actually provides a human witness. People can actually see what it looks like for a life to be transformed by a living God. It is a physical presence of God in this world.
[00:09:43] It shows us what the kingdom of heaven looks like when it comes to earth in this inauguration that Jesus called the church.
[00:09:56] And T Wright, I love how he says this.
[00:10:00] If you've listened to him recently, he says this over and over. He talks about the vocation of the church. The job of the church is to be what he calls a small working model of the new creation.
[00:10:16] When you think about heaven, what God intends for his church is that we would be a working model of showing the world what does it look like when heaven comes to earth?
[00:10:30] So many times we think that the job of the church is simply just what do we need to do to try to help people get to heaven with.
[00:10:41] That is not the purpose of the church. The purpose of the church is to show people what does it look like to bring heaven to this earth while we live?
[00:10:56] Friends, one day this earth is going to be redeemed and recreated, and we will live in it with him and with each other.
[00:11:07] No tears, no pain, all things will be restored.
[00:11:11] The purpose of the church is that we would learn to practice that today, even now, the values of the Kingdom of God, that we would actually bring those into our lives and into our community. Friends, that is the purpose of the church.
[00:11:29] That's why Jesus, when he was teaching his disciples how to pray, one of the central phrases that he wants to have on the forefront of our mind is, your kingdom come, your will be done here on earth just like it is in heaven. Jesus saying, remember when you pray, that's your job not to get people to go to heaven when they die, but it's to show people what does it look like when heaven comes to earth while we live?
[00:12:08] What does that look like?
[00:12:11] What are we talking about when we're talking about bringing heaven to earth? What are the characteristics of heaven that we're to bring to this earth?
[00:12:19] Friends, heaven is a place of holiness.
[00:12:25] When we are in heaven, we will have sin no more. That is the reality of who we will be.
[00:12:34] So when we're here on earth, what do we try to do? We try to rid ourselves in every way of sin in our life, anything that would keep us out of connection and fellowship with God himself. We work hard to remove sin from our life.
[00:12:51] One of the things that will be true in heaven is that there will be incredible unity with people. All the walls of division will be broken down.
[00:12:59] So what do we do as the church? We're to work hard to break down any walls that would separate us from other people in this world and especially other people in our church.
[00:13:11] Heaven, friends, is going to be a place of compassion.
[00:13:16] We care about other people.
[00:13:18] There's gonna be no poverty in heaven. There's gonna be no brokenness in heaven. There's gonna be no pain in heaven.
[00:13:27] That's why while we're here on earth, we're to have compassion. What can I do to relieve poverty, to relieve brokenness, to relieve pain in this world, to show the world this is what heaven's gonna be like when all of these things are eradicated? The church is to go hey, headlong toward those things. We're to sacrifice ourself for one another.
[00:13:50] The entrance to heaven is through the sacrifice of Jesus. We model that sacrifice for the sake of others. We lay our lives down for others.
[00:13:59] In heaven's friend, there is going to be radical obedience. God will be king and nobody will do anything other than what the king wants, friends.
[00:14:09] That's why today we are always asking ourselves, king, what do you want me to do? I am at your service. I am willing to obey. We go to radical obedience to show the world this is what it looks like when heaven comes to earth.
[00:14:26] We're to bring heaven to earth. Give people a picture for what it looks like when God's kingdom comes.
[00:14:37] That's the picture.
[00:14:40] Here's the problem.
[00:14:42] Honestly, a lot of those things that I just described, naturally, we're not very good at them, friends. That's why people on the outside looking in at the church and what they see, they don't see heaven coming to earth. They see something very different from that. They see actually how badly we do that of bringing heaven to earth.
[00:15:12] And it makes it easy for them to dismiss the church and its message.
[00:15:17] It's like the church is ineffective.
[00:15:20] The church is irrelevant.
[00:15:22] And you know what else it does?
[00:15:25] It messes with us that are on the inside as well.
[00:15:29] Because we have this internal compass in our. We know what it is that God is calling us to be, and we don't experience it in our reality. And sometimes, friends, that can create disillusionment. And it's in that disillusionment that we just say, I'm out.
[00:15:47] I don't want to be a part of this anymore.
[00:15:52] If we're not good at it, friends, that's got to cause us to do some serious internal reflection.
[00:16:03] If what I've said is true, and I believe it is, is that if the church is intended to be God's advertisement to the world, that his values and his kingdom are put on display so that people will flock to it.
[00:16:22] One could argue this has been a failed strategy.
[00:16:30] Friends, we've been at this for 2000 years.
[00:16:35] People beating down the doors to be a part of what we have now. I imagine that at least some of you in the back of your mind are saying right now, Bob, you are off the encouragement team forever.
[00:16:54] This is not encouraging in any way.
[00:16:59] But friends, I think it can be.
[00:17:05] This is the reality.
[00:17:07] But the question that we need to ask is, what do we do?
[00:17:13] What do we do with this challenge?
[00:17:15] That's what we're going to embrace and go after over the next 12 weeks, up until Christmas time. What does the book of Ephesians have to tell us?
[00:17:25] Because the book of Ephesians is going to tell us you are here.
[00:17:30] This is Journey Church. This is our church. This is us.
[00:17:39] And we're going to see.
[00:17:41] This is the book of Ephesians.
[00:17:46] This is God's vision.
[00:17:48] This is his North Star, Friends. This is going to show us that we've got work to do.
[00:17:57] Lots of opportunity.
[00:17:59] Ran into a friend a couple days ago. He was telling me about a meeting that he had with his physical therapist.
[00:18:06] And his physical therapist looked at him and said, I just need you to know that you have lots of opportunity to increase your muscle mass.
[00:18:14] And he was like, oh, okay, wait a minute.
[00:18:19] Are you calling me scrawny?
[00:18:23] Here's the deal, friends.
[00:18:26] We may be scrawny in some ways, but that just means that we've got lots of opportunity to grow, lots of opportunity to step in to the things that we're going to learn in the book of Ephesians and just say, if this is true, I want that true of my life. We are going to do everything we can, friends, to shape our mind with the book of Ephesians and move toward what it means to grow up in Christ.
[00:18:54] We're going to look at the scriptures, we're going to look at the life of Jesus and get that North Star clear, absolutely clear in our mind.
[00:19:06] And if we're gonna step into an honest conversation about where we are here, I want you to think about this.
[00:19:19] Do you think maybe, just maybe, that the church that we actually experience, and when I say that I mean warts and all, is exactly what God intended when he created the church.
[00:19:40] What if, maybe, maybe, friends, the church as we have it provides the conditions necessary, actually necessary for us, the good, healthy soil necessary for us to put down root and to actually grow up in Christ. Maybe it needs to be just the way that it is.
[00:20:06] Maybe, friends, just maybe God knows what he's doing in giving us the church.
[00:20:15] Let's make it personal. Giving us this church, giving us Journey Church.
[00:20:25] I believe that that's true.
[00:20:28] I believe the painful things even that we experience in the, in the context of the church is the soil that God wants to use to grow us so that we can become who we are in Him.
[00:20:43] And I'm going to keep saying it. Ephesians, friends, it is a visionary book.
[00:20:49] It is a North Star book to help us understand this picture of what it looks like when heaven comes to earth.
[00:20:58] But also, friends, this is a picture. This is a vision that in some ways we never quite see.
[00:21:08] We never actually see it.
[00:21:12] Because what it's doing is it's showing us all the things that the Spirit needs to do in and through a lot of broken lives in order to grow us up in Christ so that we will become the church that we do. See, here's the deal, friends.
[00:21:33] There's one thing you need to understand about the book of Ephesians.
[00:21:38] This is one letter that Paul wrote. This was not a letter that was provoked in any way by some problem in the church, whether behavior or belief.
[00:21:50] Oftentimes, Ephesians is referred to as a general letter to all the churches or a circular letter.
[00:21:58] This is to help all the churches understand what is this North Star picture?
[00:22:03] So that everyone in the first century had the same picture of what God wanted to do in and through them. What is the process of. Of becoming who we are?
[00:22:13] Because, you see, sometimes we can talk really romantically about the early church. You hear people say this like, we just need to get back to the early church. We need to be like the early church.
[00:22:25] God help us.
[00:22:28] If you read all of the other letters of Paul to these churches, they were messed up.
[00:22:35] Paul is writing them to address the message, the challenges that they had.
[00:22:40] Friends, Ephesians. The church in Ephesus was absolutely no different.
[00:22:47] The church in Ephesus had issues, but they're not written down in the book of Ephesians. If you want to look at the problems in Ephesus, read Paul's letters to Timothy. Timothy was the pastor that Paul put in charge of the church in Ephesus. Read those letters and you'll understand the challenges that that church had.
[00:23:08] If you want to go to the very end of the Bible when John is writing in the book of the Revelation to the churches, to the church in Ephesus, there were good things that were going on. They persevered, but they also lost their first love.
[00:23:26] They took their eyes off of Jesus. And you know what I would say, friends?
[00:23:30] I would say some of the same things are true of us, this church, our church. There are so many good things, beautiful things going on, things that are worthy of being celebrated.
[00:23:46] But we've also got challenges.
[00:23:50] We've got places, you as individuals and us collectively, where we need to grow up.
[00:23:58] Who do we have here?
[00:24:01] How is it that Journey Church, not just the church in general, Journey Church, how do we need to grow up?
[00:24:08] And here's what you need to know about this group of people that are collected Here called Journey Church.
[00:24:15] They are a mixed bag of humanity, aren't we?
[00:24:21] There are broken people here.
[00:24:24] There are abused people here.
[00:24:28] There are incredibly successful people here.
[00:24:33] There are emotionally unstable people here that are just riddled with anxiety and depression.
[00:24:41] There are incredibly joyful people here.
[00:24:46] If you look across our cross section, there are wealthy and poor.
[00:24:52] There are passive people, there are aggressive people, and there's the passive aggressive people.
[00:25:02] We have marriages that are winning.
[00:25:05] We have marriages that are hanging on by a thread.
[00:25:10] We got people that are busy and we've got people that are bored.
[00:25:15] Got people that are lonely and people that are connected.
[00:25:20] Some of you are thriving, some of you are barely surviving.
[00:25:27] We have new Christians that are here.
[00:25:31] We have old Christians that are here, our seasoned saints.
[00:25:36] We have almost Christians here. People that are kicking the tires, faith.
[00:25:42] One day they're going to bow their knee to our king across this cross section.
[00:25:48] There are hearts in this room that are on fire right now for the things of the kingdom.
[00:25:56] And there are hearts in this room that are cold and getting colder in the middle.
[00:26:06] There's the lukewarm friends.
[00:26:10] We've got it all.
[00:26:13] And here's what I love.
[00:26:16] You don't get to choose who gets to be a part of this spiritual family that we call Journey. You don't get to decide that. And you know what? Neither do I.
[00:26:30] But I want you to hear this from me. Wherever you are on your journey toward God, I am so glad that you are here.
[00:26:40] I love our church.
[00:26:42] I love the people of our church. Wherever you are in your walk with him right now.
[00:26:48] And here's my hope in and around this series as we begin to look at this North Star.
[00:26:54] I'm just praying that this vision of the church that we dream about, this church that we want to be true of us, will never become the enemy of the church that we actually have.
[00:27:10] Because I believe it's in the context of the church that we actually have, that it's the good soil that will change us from the inside out and help us in becoming who we are.
[00:27:24] I want to let you know, just kind of a picture in your mind, a little structure around the book of Ephesians as we start to step into this over the next 12 weeks. Yep, 12 weeks.
[00:27:38] Ephesians 4:1.
[00:27:40] There's kind of a centerpiece of the book of Ephesians.
[00:27:45] Paul says this as a prisoner of the Lord. Then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
[00:27:55] That word worthy. It's the word Axios. It's like a It's like a centerpiece of this book, this life of being worthy in Christ, being becoming who we were created to be.
[00:28:11] Here's what you need to understand about what happens on each side of that word. Worthy. There's two things he says. I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling.
[00:28:25] The calling is the calling of God, the voice of God.
[00:28:29] God telling us what is true about him and true about us.
[00:28:34] When we look at the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians, that's what we're gonna be looking at.
[00:28:42] The voice of God, our calling. Then when we get to chapters four through six in the book of Ephesians, it's about our living. It's about living a life.
[00:28:58] Here's what we need to understand, friends, is that in order for us to grow up, we need to believe.
[00:29:06] We need to need to believe the things that God says are true about us in Him.
[00:29:14] And in light of that, Paul is going to teach us that we need to learn to behave.
[00:29:19] We need to learn to behave, live our life in a way that makes sense in light of what God says is true of us.
[00:29:28] Belief and behave, they are tied together inextricably, Ephesians. And that's what we're going to see over time.
[00:29:38] But there's also a theme that runs all the way through the picture of Ephesians.
[00:29:45] Believe, behave.
[00:29:47] But in everything, it's about we belong.
[00:29:55] This conversation about God's calling, understanding what he has said to us and what is true about us. It is not just an individual conversation. It is a multiple voiced conversation that we have with each other because we belong to one another. That is the thread throughout the message of the Book of Ephesians.
[00:30:21] We can't think about what it means to grow up in Christ, to mature, to become like Christ, apart from, apart from us, deeply belonging to a community of people. That's why Michelle is talking about how excited she gets about us growing the number of people that are in groups so that those groups can be that kind of a soil where we can grow up in Christ together because we belong.
[00:30:52] But here's the thing about belonging biblically.
[00:30:58] It's not about just the people that we like and it's not just about the people that are like us.
[00:31:08] I'm gonna say it again, you don't get to choose who gets to be a part of this family, but we do get to choose how we invite those people to belong in the context of what we call Journey Church.
[00:31:25] As we wrap up, I want to let you know this is the series goal.
[00:31:31] I've just been praying that over these next 12 weeks, this vision for the church, this vision that Paul is going to give us would become your vision, would become our vision for your individual life and our collective life together. That we would internalize it as we allow Ephesians to wash over our heart and our mind over the next 12 weeks.
[00:31:59] So here's your assignment.
[00:32:01] And it's not a light one, but I'm just going to say this. I want you to take it seriously. I want you to make a real decision to choose not to. To do it. I want everyone to do this because I want us to become who we are together.
[00:32:21] Here's what I'm going to ask you to do. Here's your assignment.
[00:32:24] I want to ask you to read one chapter of Ephesians every day, Monday through Saturday, there are six books. Monday through Saturday you're reading one chapter. It takes about five, four minutes if you take your time to read one of those chapters.
[00:32:43] And then on Sunday you get the day off, a day of rest. But we're going to. Not a day of rest for me though. We're going to talk about it together.
[00:32:54] One chapter each day. We talk about it together. And here's part of why. I want you to read this over and over. And I want you to do that every week till the end. This isn't just a one week assignment. This is a 12 week assignment. I want you to read through minimum, the book of Ephesians 12 times by Christmas. Here's the second thing that I want you to do as you read the scripture, I want you to just simply as you read that one chapter that you would just be asking yourself, asking the Holy Spirit, actually asking the Holy Spirit, what do you want to say to me?
[00:33:29] And I want you to just make one reflection, one observation, something that just kind of jumps out from you, from the text, something that grabs your attention and I just want you to simply write it down.
[00:33:43] Because here's the reality, friends. The Holy Spirit was the one who authored the scriptures, that moved the authors to write the very words that we have in this book.
[00:33:55] And that same Holy Spirit, if you are a follower of Jesus, lives in you, and that Holy Spirit can bring things to your mind, can bring your attention to things as you read the Word that he authored. And so we're gonna ask him to do that. So it's not just us reading our Bible. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we're gonna allow the Bible to read us.
[00:34:19] That's what we want to do over these next 12 weeks.
[00:34:24] Third thing I want you to do in relation to that reflection, whatever it is that God brings to your mind, there's two questions that I want you to ask.
[00:34:35] And if you've been around here, you know what they are.
[00:34:39] I want you to ask God, what are you saying to me, God, why did you bring this to my attention?
[00:34:47] Because we believe that God is a God who speaks. He has a voice. He wants to speak into our life. We want to invite him. God, what are you saying to me about this? What do I need to believe?
[00:34:59] And then the second question is, God, what do you want me to do about it?
[00:35:05] Meaning, how do you want me to behave? What's my next step?
[00:35:10] Friends, this is why this is so important. This is where transformation actually happens in our life by asking these two simple questions. That's why Jesus, at the end of his sermon on the mount, he said, the wise man is the one who hears my words, hears my voice, listens to the word, and puts it in to practice.
[00:35:37] That's what makes us wise. It's not just about reading something, gaining knowledge.
[00:35:42] That's just information. When we start to ask these two questions, say, God, what do you want me to do? Those are transformation questions. Our lives begin to change, and that's when we're able to grow the way that Jesus wants us to grow as a community together.
[00:36:03] The last thing I want you to do, you've read a chapter, you've made an observation, a reflection.
[00:36:10] You've asked those two questions.
[00:36:12] I want you to share it with at least one person.
[00:36:17] And I want you to even start to think about right now, who would that one person be? Because, friends, if this living out our faith is something that we do together, we can't just say, oh, this is my private faith. No, no, no. We need to start to make it public. Public with other people. One trusted friend, at least. One trusted friend. Maybe it's a group of people.
[00:36:41] I talked with my men's group on Friday morning. I said, guys, this is what I'm gonna challenge the church to do. Are you gonna do it with me? And they were like, I'm in.
[00:36:50] Who will do that with you? Who's a friend you could do that with?
[00:36:56] And now I'm gonna meddle a little bit.
[00:37:01] For those of you that are married, if you are married, I'm gonna challenge you. You can do it with anybody, but also do it with your wife.
[00:37:12] Do this with your husband. Carmen, will you do it with me? No pressure, all right?
[00:37:20] Because it's so easy friends to just live our life and our faith can be separate from our spouses. We don't pray together the way that we want to. We're not engaging around the ways that God is moving in our life. This will give you an opportunity to talk about and to think about what God is doing in your life.
[00:37:39] Maybe even to take it a little step further. Maybe you do it with your whole family.
[00:37:45] Invite the kids into it, say, hey kids, let's, let's engage the Lord together. Here's what I promise. The more people that you pull into it, the more, the more that you will get out of it. Because you start to see what the Spirit is speaking to other people. Because it's a multi voice conversation and suddenly things that God is saying to them, you're also realizing like God, I think you want to say that to me too. And we grow together. Together we become who we are.
[00:38:14] Invite somebody into it with you.
[00:38:19] And I just want you to understand that what I'm asking you to do is not that difficult.
[00:38:24] I wanted to just show you like what I did this morning was I just got up and I did this very thing. So I'm already a day ahead of you guys.
[00:38:34] You're behind.
[00:38:35] This is what I did. I just got up this morning and this is for tomorrow. I read Ephesians chapter 1 and when I got to verse 13, it says, when you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.
[00:38:50] It grabbed my attention.
[00:38:52] I just reminded myself my life is marked by the indwelling presence of God.
[00:38:59] From the moment I put my faith in Christ, I belong to him and he is always with me.
[00:39:05] This ministered to my heart, reminding myself of that. But then I just asked the question, God, what are you saying to me about that?
[00:39:14] And this is what came to my mind. It was just a thought that came to my mind. I didn't try to filter it, I didn't try to analyze it. I just wrote it down. God, what are you saying?
[00:39:22] My spirit is in you and wants to speak to your heart and to your spirit.
[00:39:29] God just says, I want to speak to you.
[00:39:32] And this is what I do in my journal when I ask the question, lord, what do you want me to do? I just write the word do so I won't get out of it. I put a big box around it and this is what came to my mind. I just want to be attentive and responsive to the still small voice of the Spirit.
[00:39:52] And I want to share with someone what it is that the Spirit specifically spoke to me.
[00:40:00] Here's why that's important for me, is that when I actually say I'm going to tell somebody about that, I'm looking for those opportunities.
[00:40:10] Now, here's the deal. You start doing that every day, just asking those simple questions. God, what do you want to say to me? What is it that you want me to do? You might be thinking, well, that's no big deal.
[00:40:19] That's no big step.
[00:40:22] Friend, if our church was marked by people that walked through their day asking that question over and over, God, what are you saying to me right now?
[00:40:32] What is it that you want me to do?
[00:40:34] I promise, your life would be changed. Our church would be changed. Our city would be changed. Our world would be changed. It would be transformed. Take me up on it.
[00:40:46] Do this assignment.
[00:40:50] Okay? I've badgered you enough.
[00:40:54] Let's pray.
[00:41:03] Jesus, I love this church.
[00:41:07] Jesus. The greatest privilege of my life is that I get to be a part of this.
[00:41:15] So many beautiful souls.
[00:41:17] Some of them I know infinitely intimately.
[00:41:22] Some of them I.
[00:41:24] I don't know it all, but Jesus, you know them.
[00:41:29] Jesus, we're gonna ask over the next 12 weeks as we try to grab ahold of your vision for your church, for this church, for our church, for Journey Church.
[00:41:44] Jesus, you're in charge.
[00:41:47] Holy Spirit, speak.
[00:41:49] Show us, show us what it looks like to bring your kingdom, to bring the kingdom of heaven down to this earth. That we would actually, Jesus, be a working model, a little working model of what heaven might look like as we bring your values to this work.
[00:42:11] Jesus, we can't do it on our own. Thank you that you sent your Holy Spirit. We surrender to him. We lay our life at his feet. Holy Spirit, you need to move. We invite you to do that. We humble ourselves before you and we ask you to help us in becoming who we are.
[00:42:37] Jesus. In your name we pray.
[00:42:39] And all God's people said, amen.
