Follow Me Pt. 2 :: God is Always Present and at Work

Visit our website
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Instagram

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Thanks for joining us today as you listen to a portion of the message recorded at Vine Life Church in Boulder, Colorado. If you'd like to connect with us further, you can visit us online at www.vinelife.com.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

There's something shifting and moving that we can cooperate with it and move with it, move in it. I'm gonna read a little quote from this guy named Thomas Merton. Here's an unspeakable secret. Paradise is in and all around us, and we do not understand. It is wide open. The sword is taken away, but we do not know it. We are off. One to his farm and another to his merchandise. Lights on, clocks ticking, thermostats working, stoves cooking, electric shavers filling radios with static. He has a little back aways. Doesn't happen so much anymore, but there was a time that electric razors filled radios with static. The electromagnetic things were going on and it just crackled in the radios. And uh wisdom cries the Dawn Deacon. Wisdom cries the Dawn Deacon, but we do not attend. This quote is talking about this place of living in our regular lives, our everyday lives. We step into it. We know this very well. We we some of us are may, I believe, are really doing well waking up in the morning and doing our best to be aware of the presence of God. And being thankful that there's a new morning, there's a new day, there's something possible in this day and in this moment that I can step into and become aware of that I find I am loved to the depths of my core. We like to start there. I believe many of us do. Then about 8:35, or some other moment down the road, something shifts, and we find ourselves in the clock ticking place, or I've got to go to my farm, or I've got to go to my merchandise, or I have to do this, and I have to move into different places. And I step out of an awareness into the awareness of what I believe is the most real thing that's going on right now. Jesus put it this way, slide four. From the time Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And again in Luke 17, 21, 20 through 21, he said, Now when he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God does not come with observation. Nor will they say, See here or see there, for indeed the kingdom of heaven is within you. Jesus was saying again that we could repent, we could change our thinking, we could shift from this mindset of God is not present and we're not in heaven now, to a mindset of, wow, I am existing and abiding in the one. And he invited us into that place. He was always bringing us, inviting us toward another way of seeing, a more inclusive way, and that recognized that God is always present and at work. He's always present and at work. The idea went in the face of the religious people of the day. They were in an old covenant mind. They were really good at what they did. They had law upon law upon law on what it was and how it was to be a good soldier of God, a good servant of God, a good person, chosen person. And they lived really strongly and powerfully in that place. They were a law, a temple, and a sacrifice-focused people. They believed that God showed up in certain people, mostly the priests and the high priests, some prophets, but there weren't many at the time Jesus showed up. On certain days, holy days, that's when he really showed up. It was on the holy days. And in certain places, again, the temple. God was an object. Apart from them, they worshiped him, they believed that he'd given him life. They believed that he had created things, but he was still an object to them. An object to be worshipped, an object to be sought after, an object to earn his approval. And all of that. He began to question it. He began to just ask them inquires, subtle questions, some of them not so subtle, questions to begin to unravel the thinking that was existing, that was continuing to help them believe that somewhere down the road the Messiah is going to come. Somewhere down the road, the one that is going to help us see who we are and the union that we have in God was going to show up. And that shifted. It shifted in Christ. Shortly after the ascension, people immediately wanted to invite people right back into the Jewish way of being. But these guys, these people, had had enough of a presence and an awakening and awareness and were paying attention to the reality that God is present and at work that they responded to that instead of their human desire to go out and bring them in. Let's help people recognize the truth of who we are in Christ, come into the reality of that, and allow people to see what's happened here in this life that's been opened up to us. Many people in the church still think of God as an object from separated from themselves. They, we, naturally want to please him. We want to inform God, tell him what he knows. God, you know this. We want to tell God what he should do. God, do this. And we're still in these places, often, many of us. It happens a lot. But the reality is we cannot thank God. We can't think him. We can't think some him into existence. If we begin to do that, we begin to create idols in our own being and in our own in our own selves that help us and separate us from something that's already going on in us. I'll step away from him in order to worship at the altar of my own ideas of who God is and what God looks like. But God is always, God is never an object like the other objects of consciousness. In fact, God refuses to be objectified and made into an idol or a facsimile of God. This looks like God, so I'll worship that. God is always and forever the subject. God is the one that knows in us. And as we come on to subject, that gonosco, that intimate knowing begins to happen within our very being, subject to subject. We get washed and cleaned and moved from a separated, dual place into the union that is the promise of the Scripture repeatedly. It's always promise there. Galatians 2.20, Paul says, I've been crucified with Christ, and it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Again, we can only know God subject to subject, center to center. There's no other way to be known that I'm aware of. We try, and it's good. There's good things happening. Trying to come from the outside in is a lot like being a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout. We have nice shirts and sashes, and I earn my do whatever, whole bunch of things, and I get a merit badge, put it on my shirt, get another merit badge, and put it on my sash. Pretty soon I have this wonderful, full, I could be an Eagle Scout. I could be, I don't know what that's the thing is in the Girl Scouts that's equal to that, but that's that's something massive and amazing. I could be that. I could be a person. I've got my born again badge and my communion badge and my baptism badge and my Bible study badge and my and my teaching badge and my uh whole shirt full. And they're wonderful and they're beautiful and they help us feel so good. We feel so good in these places. And often what's happening for me in those places and have been in my life is that somehow I'm trying to make myself worthy of God. Somehow I'm trying to make myself come into a place where I can be acceptable in the eyes of God, or acceptable in the eyes of the church, acceptable in the eyes of those around me, because I think I'm inside something and there's other people outside. Something hasn't shifted in me if I'm in that mind to recognize the truth and the awareness of all things in Christ. From before the foundations of the world, he was. All things are in Christ. Everything exists in that vastness and in the awareness, that which is holding it all together. All things. So if that's the truth of the gospel, the truth of the scriptures, and I read it and I believe it, how am I doing? How am I doing in my day-to-day clock ticking, go to my business, go to my merchandise life? There's something that we're being invited into in those simple words of follow me. It's beautiful. The invitation to change our mindsets and to see it a new way was inherent in that invitation. Follow me. Hey guys, we're gonna go somewhere that none of you know. We're gonna step into a mystery that none of you are aware of. Would you like to come? Would you like to see? Because if someone says to you, come over here and see, it doesn't work. Won't happen. It's not over there. It's not over there. It's right here. It's within you. It's within us. It's the only place that awareness can be found. We can feel things. Sometimes, like this morning, the beauty of what was happening in worship, absolutely beautiful. Feels so good. It feels good. Ah. And how does that actually move? Do I let it come into a place where that's coming from inside out? Many of us, many people are worshiping there, coming from that place. Inside out. Some of us are trying to come outside in. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's no condemnation in it. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just trying to point us to help us see the resurrected reality of the one in whom we live and move and have our being. So again, that reality is the one who formed us. No matter what's happening, the one who is always present and at work, there's one. It's in us, each of us. It's one. We're one in and with through Christ Jesus. There's a scripture in slide five, 1 John 5, 20. And this is, I love this scripture. I've been pondering it for years. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, in his son Jesus Christ. This is the true God in eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Those scriptures, that word know, the first K-N-O-W in that first sentence is defined as a word see, aware. I come into awareness. And we come aware, we become aware that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, someplace that's built upon our knowing. That word understanding in there is built upon a knowing. It's not built on an intellectual process. It's built upon something habitually in our being that we become aware of. And as we're in that space, we know Him who is true, that we are in Him who is true, in the Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Keep yourself from facsimiles. Keep yourself from creating things or putting things in front of you that interfere with that gonosco reality, that intimate knowing reality. Stop putting things in front of yourself. We love to do that. It's easy. All the time. It's easy. It's something that we have, we've been trained in it for a long time. We've been brought into it through denominational splits, through doctrinal transitions, over and over and over again through the Christian church. I have. And I take those things. This is the gospel. I take them that way. And the Lord keeps going, nope, nope, let's go back. This thing is a little simpler than what you've done with it, kid. Let's keep coming, let's go back a little further here. In fact, I want to meet you right in the middle of that place inside of yourself that you don't want to go. That's where I want to meet you. Right in the middle of that place that you would like to avoid. And that if you think you can make a badge that's big enough to prevent you from having to go there, sorry, you know, and that's where most of us, many people end up with in Christianity living a life that just says, I'll live my life, I'll do what I'm doing, I'm good, I'm fine, and when I die, I'll go to heaven, and then everything will be cool. Everything will be good there. And it's shifting and it's been shifting and it's been shifting because he said, Would you follow me? And I said yes. And he said, okay. He being often a drawing into awareness, uh, a lighting up inside darkness in my own being, a going into a shadow place that I've avoided in my own being. There's this beautiful science that's happening right now. They're discovering that that when our eyes see something as absolute darkness, that within there are these small particles of light that we can't pick up with our eyes. Science is discovering that. I think that's amazing. Because in the places that I get invited into my own being, that this is pretty dark, there's a chunk of fear in me that I've been avoiding, and I got the scripture for that. I start to feel it, and I'm gonna go, I'll just perfect love, I'll wash that away, I'll repeat that thing over and over and over again, and I won't feel it. I won't go into the fear. I won't go into the fear. I will not be fearful, I won't go into the fear. And uh over years I've built cocoons around it. I've built, I've built, uh, and God, I would say God has sometimes built this chrysalis around this thing because he wants to transform it. But I'll bounce off the top of the chrysalis instead of allowing myself to go into that place of transformation, be with him there, wait with him here, be still in this place, and allow perfect love to cast the fear out. Nothing's changed in there, other than the fear is gone. Nothing is shifted in there other than, man, I there's something beautiful in here. There's really something beautiful in here, a union, a oneness, a love that I've been longing for, that I haven't been able to feel. Happens with belonging, not belonging. Happens with significance, fear, around fear, and it happens with control. He's really been beautiful over the past few years with me helping me in shame and fear. Control is probably still coming. I'm like, oh God, you know, I don't know what that's gonna look like. That thing, you know, I start to uh be invited into that place where I've needed to control things in order to uh just be fine. You know, I'll be fine. I got God. He's all around me. Uh he's not in this place, but he's all around me. You know. Yeah, I'm so I'm just in this invitation that God is present. In the 21st century, uh we Western Christianity has largely been about mountaintop experiences with God. Uh but most of our life is lived on the road and in the valleys. We love the mountaintops. I'm gonna go to the mountaintop, gonna create a mountaintop. I do love the mountaintops. So all kinds of wonderful things have happened in these high places. Beautiful places. Presence. The presence of God is so beautiful here in this high place. This transcendent thing that I'm living in. And I've learned how to do that really well. I've learned how to get myself up and out. I start to feel or become aware of that place of fear and my being. Man, I know what to do. I've been trained really well what to do in order to get up and out and get high on God. I'm going to get high on God. It's one of my favorite addictions, by the way. And the invitation that he's invited us into is, hey, follow me here, son. Come on in. Come on down. Come into the valley with me. The valley of the shadow of death, we love that song. You know, we don't like being in the valley of the shadow of death, but we love the song. In those places and in the realities of that, we've we've we've been there. These individual moments, and they're sometimes literal moments there that have stopped and filled me with awe. That happens on a Sunday morning sometimes. It happens in conferences or in teaching places and teaching moments. Happens in impartation moments or moments of different kinds of moments. Driving down the road moments. I'm driving down the road and space is all around, and I just get overwhelmed. Intimate moments. And the somehow I believe I am changed forever moment. That's what those are. Somehow I believe I'm changed forever. I woke up. And I did. We did for a moment. For a second. They're wonderful. And if what is underneath of it and within them that we can't explain and be embraced, and uh and if we allow it to be planted, it may help in our transformation. What I'm saying there is oftentimes when I have those high experiences, I want to tell everybody about it. And in the middle of telling everybody about it, all of a sudden it doesn't quite the same. It isn't quite what I can't quite, you know. Someone said recently, we've heard it for years, you can't describe the taste of an apple. You know? Can't I want to? I've just tasted a honey crisp. Everyone, let me describe this honey crisp. You know, doesn't work. It's that taste and see reality that we're talking about. And that only happens in the present and in that place where we truly are, in that very moment. If again I can embrace it and accept it and allow it to permeate the things I don't understand about what's going on here in my own being. If I can help that, if I can embrace it, something will shift. I've got to run. I don't want to keep you until forever. So what happens, again, if there's a if there's a space here that we begin to have an experience, and it's wonderful and it's high. You know, Luke was talking to me this week. He said, what if we it's like sod. You go out, there's a beautiful field, you step into it, it's gorgeous. I'm gonna take some of this back to my house, roll it up, bring it back. I got this beautiful grass, I got this beautiful thing, and I lay it out on top of my existing lawn. And and I hope then somehow this thing will sprout. Typically, it doesn't. Typically, what happens is uh within a period of time, death. Just death, the whole thing dies, and then I wonder, how come God's not here? How come God's not here? Should be, could be, but God's not here. I better get out of this place. So I'm just gonna pull it in here. For whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Walking circumspectly, circumspectfully means to walk with diligence. It means to walk paying close attention. It's a walk of finding Christ within us in our most unheard of places. Often in places that we are aware of but we avoid. These unheard of places, some could be fantasies that we've engaged in. We enter into a fantasy and we believe we've creating something around God, and this is how it'll all look like. This is what it'll all look like when everything comes in into place. Sometimes, and there's something usually under that, uh side of that, under that, that the Lord is after in us. Uh the desire for our true belonging to open up and be come into being. The desire that that true place of union and oneness and non-separation with God is actually what's underneath of those desires. Some of our addictions, the addictions that people have, and alcohol or drugs or or sex or technology, consumerism, all of these things. There's something that is desired, there's a desire that it will fill something in our being. It will help us come into a different place of awareness when underneath of it there's a desire that God, the the one that created us, is wanting to meet there in us. Belonging forever. You are significant in the whole of your being. You have security right where you are, uh, all the way down, all the way through. As we step into those places and we realize it, we begin to discover that God is present and at work. I can, you know, I love Mark. Uh you can you can start going. I'm I'll pull it all in here. Maybe. Yeah. So um at this, at the at the in this place that we're living in, this life that we've said yes to following Christ, um, oftentimes I've kept it up here between my ears. And it's been in this place of what do I know about God? Everything I know about God, I'll keep it in here and I'll be really grand and have all of my awareness there. And the Lord said, no, follow me means going right in to the place where I am at the very core of your being. Because you cannot be without me. There is no, there is no life apart from the life that we have in Christ, that we've been given. None. And the draw in there is a draw into shadow, often into darkness, into unseen places, high or low. There's heights we haven't been to in God, many of them. And there's depths we haven't been to in God. And when he draws us, when he brings us in, we come, if we can come with the awareness that would let that thought go that God's not here. I can't go there, God's not here. I better do something in order for him to get here. If I can go with the awareness there is no place God isn't, God is always present and at work. Then I can step into the discomfort of my own being and sit for a moment. Sometimes, honestly, those moments are a little long. I'm in one. I've been here about five weeks in this place deep in my being. Love is showing up. Significance in him is showing up. I invite us to not be afraid of those places. Following Christ into where he's inviting us. Sometimes the invitation is not pretty and with bows. Sometimes the invitation comes in an emotion that I, if I had to avoid it, God, I would love to avoid that emotion. And that's where control comes in for me. I'm gonna control my, I will exhibit not the self-control of the Holy Spirit, but the control of Ed Benell to keep myself from going into that feeling or that place. I have such good self-control until I don't. And when I don't, if I allow it, I'm discovering the Lord there. God help me not hurt anyone, including myself, when those things happen. And I apologize when I do. I'm so sorry if I have to anyone in this place. So, Lord, I just I have a little thing, a card was passed out here. Uh it's uh I just want to invite you to give yourselves a gift of time this week. It's not a lot of time, just a little time, to do a short practice once a day if you can. Find a place where you can be alone and uninterrupted for a few minutes. Uh read through Genesis 28, 10 through 16 several times slowly, and take your time. Set a timer for five minutes and then take some breaths and allow yourself to calm down, settle into it, and just be there in the silence and in the stillness. And when your mind wanders, you can you can repeat a phrase if you like to help you. This is the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. This is the house of God. This is. And this is the gate of heaven. It's the gate of heaven. The way in. When the timer's finished, thank God that he's always present and at work and ask him to increase your awareness of his presence in all of your activity. Just five minutes, six minutes, uh, and begin to see what happens. A little bit of time. Hope you enjoy that. And I'm just gonna close this up with a little prayer and say thank you, Lord. Praise you, God. I thank you, God, I thank you for the life that we have, that we've been given. We don't give it to ourselves. We're being breathed. So I thank you for the life. And I thank you to help us become aware more consistently in our being that we and you were one. That everything that happened, that resurrection is a possibility for us here and now. I really wanted to read Ephesians 4. Uh, because we're in this place of waking up, coming into the awareness of the fullness, of the stature, of the measure of Christ. Each one of us here on earth, right now. That's what's happening. And so we're just inviting you into the can I let that happen? Can I allow it? Yeah, we can. So I just bless you. Thank you. God bless your week.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

God is present. God is present and at work. Hey, let's stand together. I'm gonna have the ministry team come forward. And uh as we end our time here together, um, yeah, we believe that God He He wants to extend His presence to us in specific ways. And maybe you need healing in your body, maybe you need someone to talk to. These people that are up front, you know, as we as some of us leave, feel free to come up front and uh spend some time um getting some prayer. Also, I'll mention this Friday night. We didn't mention a time, but the prayer night, this Friday night is gonna start at seven o'clock in the theater. Again, mark your calendars and um hope you can make it. And uh, yeah, we just want to bless you guys um as you go out that Monday morning is just as full of the life of Christ as Sunday morning, right? And that you go in the peace and the strength and the presence of God.