WEBVTT 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:13.300 Hello and welcome to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast. 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:14.820 Thank you so much for listening. 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:16.160 We're Startup Church. 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:23.460 We just planted in September, 2020 and at the Kalamazoo church, we believe that Christianity is done best when it is done together. 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:32.299 And so if you live in the Kalamazoo area, we would love to connect, be it coming to a Sunday service, one of our small groups, or even just grabbing coffee with a member to learn more. 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:36.439 You can visit kalamazoo.church in order to do that. 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:40.380 We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today. 00:00:42.890 --> 00:01:06.810 You know, Mother's Day is a, it's a joyous time, but Mother's Day brings about nuanced feelings inside of some of us, especially for those who are estranged either from their mothers or their children, those who have lost mothers, those who have lost children, for those who are trying to conceive, but have not yet been able to. 00:01:07.069 --> 00:01:19.030 And so I realize, and I understand, I see you, we see you, that there's a feeling of, there's joy for others and yet inside of you, there's something, there's a longing that is missing. 00:01:19.129 --> 00:01:25.450 And then there's a guilt that can be brought up of, I'm happy for some people, but I feel bad for feeling this way. 00:01:25.450 --> 00:01:28.750 And I would say, I would say this morning, don't feel bad about that. 00:01:29.090 --> 00:01:43.209 Right now, we are, we are going to take a moment of silence for anybody in this room who's in a difficult situation with their mom or their children or anything like that, or again, who's lost a mother, a child who's trying to conceive and has not yet been able to. 00:01:43.349 --> 00:01:46.430 We're going to take a moment of silence, and I'm going to pray, and then we'll get into the lesson. 00:02:05.549 --> 00:02:11.370 Dear Lord, Father, you, you, you bind up broken hearts, Lord. 00:02:11.370 --> 00:02:16.490 You provide us with, with peace that is inexplicable, Lord. 00:02:16.629 --> 00:02:24.990 There's a peace that we, it feels like that we can be grasping for, and we just can't get it, Lord. 00:02:25.110 --> 00:02:29.169 And yet I realize that, that you have it in abundance. 00:02:29.710 --> 00:02:38.650 You say that we ought to take your yoke upon us because your yoke is easy, your burden is light. 00:02:38.650 --> 00:02:41.590 And Jesus, we want to do that this morning. 00:02:41.849 --> 00:02:52.650 Lord, we realize in order to do that, we've got to give you, we've got to let down, but then give you our burdens and our stressors and our discouragements and our entire, our entire beings. 00:02:52.870 --> 00:03:03.590 Lord, we know that in order for us to feel this peace, in order for us to be able to walk as close as you want us to walk with you as possible, we're going to have to give up some things, Lord. 00:03:03.590 --> 00:03:12.629 We just ask this morning, I want to pray that wherever we are, Lord, I pray that you will mend broken hearts as you promise to do. 00:03:12.870 --> 00:03:13.729 Lord, we love you. 00:03:14.330 --> 00:03:19.250 Lord, thank you for allowing us the chance to worship you this morning. 00:03:19.590 --> 00:03:21.930 This is in your son, Jesus' name that we pray. 00:03:22.110 --> 00:03:22.289 Amen. 00:03:23.550 --> 00:03:23.750 Amen. 00:03:24.590 --> 00:03:34.409 You know, it's especially relevant in this time and even in lieu of what we just discussed for the last couple or for the next couple of Sundays, we're going to talk about Abraham. 00:03:34.870 --> 00:03:42.150 And one thing that you should know about Abraham is that he, we're not going to read all of the backstory. 00:03:42.430 --> 00:03:47.050 So in the last, I think it's three months, we've gotten through 11 chapters of the Bible. 00:03:47.469 --> 00:03:52.509 And so we're not going to make it to the finish line unless we, we're going to speed things up just a little bit. 00:03:53.210 --> 00:03:59.789 So we're not going to read all of the narrative of Abraham, but we're going to spend a couple of Sundays doing it. 00:04:00.090 --> 00:04:03.629 But you know, Abraham, he had, he had troubles in his life. 00:04:03.770 --> 00:04:09.710 He was like any of us, that there was some difficult challenges that occurred after God called him. 00:04:10.210 --> 00:04:12.909 There was difficult challenges that happened before God called him. 00:04:13.590 --> 00:04:20.970 The goal over these, this next really eight weeks is that we're talking about God's people birth. 00:04:21.088 --> 00:04:23.230 And so what is, what do God's people look like? 00:04:23.230 --> 00:04:32.110 And we're going to look at just the line of Abraham and how it continues to grow and how we have the opportunity to be shaped by his faith. 00:04:34.009 --> 00:04:39.589 If I had to ask you, who is Abraham, what would you say? 00:04:40.050 --> 00:04:41.629 And this is a rhetorical question. 00:04:41.790 --> 00:04:51.589 You might, if you grew up going to church, there's a kingdom class song, Father Abraham had many sons and many sons had Father Abraham. 00:04:51.589 --> 00:04:54.730 And then you put your hand out and you, you might say that. 00:04:56.949 --> 00:04:59.529 You might identify that he had a child when he was old. 00:04:59.990 --> 00:05:00.550 That's true. 00:05:00.910 --> 00:05:04.430 Maybe if you were extra spiritual, you'd say, well, he obeyed God. 00:05:04.509 --> 00:05:12.870 And that's, that's the heart of what we're looking at this, this morning in, in, in the midst of what was inexplicable, it didn't make much sense. 00:05:12.930 --> 00:05:14.329 He decided he obeyed God. 00:05:15.509 --> 00:05:20.790 We're going to, we're going to look a little bit about Abraham and some of the routines that he built up. 00:05:20.829 --> 00:05:29.970 And I hope that we feel challenged and we feel called to, to build up routines and patterns in our life that allow us to worship God everywhere we go. 00:05:30.110 --> 00:05:30.310 Amen. 00:05:32.410 --> 00:05:38.509 Abraham worshiped wherever he went in the extraordinary, he decided he was going to worship God in the trials. 00:05:38.610 --> 00:05:40.589 He worshiped God on the mountain tops. 00:05:40.670 --> 00:05:43.509 He worshiped God in the mundane and normal. 00:05:43.610 --> 00:05:44.750 He also worshiped God. 00:05:44.870 --> 00:05:46.129 We ought to do the same. 00:05:46.689 --> 00:05:48.370 We're going to, we're going to be in Genesis 12. 00:05:50.810 --> 00:05:56.970 And so there's, when you see in the Bible, Abraham, this is, it's not a, it's not a typo. 00:05:57.110 --> 00:06:00.470 So Abram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah. 00:06:01.410 --> 00:06:10.870 And you can look at some of the backstory if you, if you care to, but I guess for our purposes, just understand as we read Abraham or Abram, Abraham, we're talking about the same person. 00:06:15.449 --> 00:06:16.610 Alec didn't know that, I guess. 00:06:17.889 --> 00:06:18.990 That was just for Alec. 00:06:18.990 --> 00:06:19.870 Everyone else knew it. 00:06:20.370 --> 00:06:26.750 The Lord said to Abram, go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land. 00:06:26.850 --> 00:06:27.350 I'll show you. 00:06:27.889 --> 00:06:30.589 I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. 00:06:31.430 --> 00:06:34.850 I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. 00:06:35.329 --> 00:06:41.949 I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. 00:06:45.319 --> 00:06:49.939 So Abram went as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him. 00:06:49.939 --> 00:06:53.060 Abram was 75 years old when he set out for Haran. 00:06:53.199 --> 00:07:03.259 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew, Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, they set out for the land of Canaan and they arrived there. 00:07:03.720 --> 00:07:08.879 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Mora at Shechem. 00:07:09.339 --> 00:07:11.899 At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:16.839 The Lord appeared to Abram and said to your offspring, I will give this land. 00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:20.160 So he built an altar there to the Lord who would appear to him. 00:07:23.060 --> 00:07:24.839 We'll pause there and we'll keep going. 00:07:24.939 --> 00:07:27.500 But Abraham and Sarah, they were people. 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:30.639 They were people who had people problems. 00:07:31.579 --> 00:07:33.259 So they were aging. 00:07:33.800 --> 00:07:35.759 We understand Sarah was barren. 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:43.079 We understand that they were following God and yet God had promised them something that had not yet happened. 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:45.079 They couldn't see a way for it to happen. 00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:50.459 You've got Abraham's nephew, Lot, tagging along. 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:57.399 And so you've got all of the family drama that's there that we're not going to read about this morning, but that's there. 00:07:57.839 --> 00:07:58.560 They're shepherds. 00:07:58.620 --> 00:08:06.100 There's a constant need to move or to be aware in order to provide your animals the best situation, but in order for a livelihood as well. 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:09.399 They cannot just sit down, eat, drink, and be merry. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:11.800 We've got these problems too, though. 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:13.959 There's family problems. 00:08:13.959 --> 00:08:15.740 There was probably family stuff that came up this week. 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:19.500 You probably had to work this week. 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:22.540 If not, you took vacation and you don't get any more vacation the rest of the year. 00:08:26.980 --> 00:08:30.819 You might be going through a difficult family situation. 00:08:31.559 --> 00:08:35.080 Perhaps you're looking at God's promises and saying, I know you promised me this. 00:08:35.700 --> 00:08:36.779 Where are you, though? 00:08:36.798 --> 00:08:37.600 I don't see it. 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:39.178 I believe it's true. 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:42.298 I'm not going to stop following, but are you sure? 00:08:42.298 --> 00:08:44.740 Maybe it's a different promise that you gave me. 00:08:47.570 --> 00:08:54.830 There's nothing outrageously exemplary about Abraham, except for one thing, though. 00:08:55.490 --> 00:09:01.289 The writer of Hebrews says, by faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called. 00:09:02.580 --> 00:09:07.850 This word obey is one that we, in our beings, do not like. 00:09:11.110 --> 00:09:16.090 You know how I know that we don't like it, that it's not in our nature to obey? 00:09:16.769 --> 00:09:19.570 Because of what just occurred when we just sent the kids off. 00:09:20.230 --> 00:09:22.129 There's chaos all of the time. 00:09:22.230 --> 00:09:30.610 Even when your kid obeys just a little bit, you feel like we're taking a victory and we're going to magnify this victory, because in their nature, they don't want to obey. 00:09:31.429 --> 00:09:33.809 We're kids, so in our nature, we don't want to obey. 00:09:33.809 --> 00:09:40.389 And some of us, still, if you'll be real with yourself, when your boss tells you to do something that you think doesn't make much sense, you don't want to obey. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:50.480 And when your boss tells you something that makes sense, you already thought about it first. 00:09:50.620 --> 00:09:52.399 And so you're not listening to your boss. 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:55.320 You're just doing what you already knew you were going to do anyways. 00:10:00.990 --> 00:10:05.590 Abraham's obedience, it allowed him to be a blessing to so many nations, though. 00:10:06.169 --> 00:10:12.529 And then it says that he built an altar, right at the end of verse seven, he built an altar to the Lord. 00:10:13.590 --> 00:10:38.289 I learned this week, I understood a bit about what an altar was, but there's a book that I'm reading called Simply Christian, and it fit alongside this really well, and it's really that one of the promises is that God is going to dwell with his people, and this is one of the ways, especially in the Old Testament, the early part, that God was able to do that. 00:10:38.370 --> 00:10:47.909 What an altar was is you would set something up, basically, and it was a place that God would be worshiped with prayer, sacrifice, just this connection and this communion. 00:10:48.669 --> 00:11:01.950 It was understood that this would have been, God dwells in the world, but it was understood this is a special place for God's dwelling, and this is a great opportunity for me to give honor and praise and glory to God in this one location. 00:11:02.529 --> 00:11:03.809 That's what an altar was. 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:20.080 And you would sacrifice, just so I'm going to be reliant on you, you would give up your time and some of your energy to gather and to set up, and you would go through the work in order to say, God, you're bigger than me, you deserve more than what I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you this, though. 00:11:25.299 --> 00:11:34.759 And Abraham, we understand he did this time and time and time again, we're going to read in the next little bit about even in everywhere he went, he decided he was going to do this. 00:11:34.759 --> 00:11:39.179 But this idea of obedience, I want to hash out a little bit more. 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:47.759 You know, I think obedience, when you think about obeying, and especially obeying God, we can go to places that thinking, okay, obeying God is, I just can't sin. 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:51.059 If I just don't sin, then I'm pretty obedient to God. 00:11:52.720 --> 00:12:03.980 But there's a relationship that would permeate between us and God that would just occur all of the time, that just deciding I'm going to not sin doesn't do that. 00:12:05.580 --> 00:12:12.460 You know, it's similar, this is cheesy, but you guys know those, those what would Jesus do, those WWJD, those wristbands. 00:12:13.899 --> 00:12:20.519 You know, I have a love hate with those wristbands, because a lot of times when you're in that, you know, you're like, what would Jesus do? 00:12:20.580 --> 00:12:23.039 Well, he wouldn't be in the situation that I'm in right now. 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:28.559 He wouldn't have, you know, Jesus, he wouldn't have met with these people. 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:29.919 He wouldn't be in this location. 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:32.600 He wouldn't be up this late. 00:12:32.840 --> 00:12:36.279 He wouldn't be doing whatever I'm in the middle of doing. 00:12:38.600 --> 00:12:40.100 The question, what would Jesus do? 00:12:40.179 --> 00:12:48.919 You're like, well, I, there's nothing in the Bible that necessarily communicates what he would do if, you know, it was this late and I had this situation, it doesn't, it doesn't really say. 00:12:49.019 --> 00:12:49.779 So what do you have to do? 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:51.279 How are you going to obey Jesus? 00:12:51.379 --> 00:12:54.759 If you don't have this roadmap of in this exact situation, what do you do? 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:56.179 Well, you have to be walking with God. 00:12:57.740 --> 00:13:02.679 This is the obedience that, that Abraham, he was, he was continually walking with God. 00:13:03.100 --> 00:13:07.120 It wasn't, it wasn't just, I'm going to not do these things. 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:08.480 I'm going to do these things. 00:13:08.500 --> 00:13:12.059 There was this constant relationship that was occurring. 00:13:15.710 --> 00:13:21.370 And so, and so for us, the same ought to be true as we think about, well, what would Jesus do? 00:13:21.409 --> 00:13:31.210 Or we, as we think about being obedient to God and you think about, we'll talk about this just for a little bit and we're not going to get super deep, but a question I want to ask is how obedient to God are you financially? 00:13:31.990 --> 00:13:32.389 Wow. 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:36.860 I'm not, I'm not, I'm not just talking about contribution. 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:39.360 I am talking about contribution, but not just about contribution. 00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:41.019 How obedient to God are you financially? 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:43.759 How do you, and how do you know? 00:13:44.039 --> 00:13:45.120 I'm obedient to God. 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:45.600 Well, who knows? 00:13:46.059 --> 00:13:54.039 Who's to say, do you consult God with your financial decisions more than that? 00:13:54.100 --> 00:13:58.639 Are you obedient to God with every decision of consequence in your life? 00:14:01.919 --> 00:14:02.600 Work with me here. 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:07.179 God, I really believe that God cares about everything you do. 00:14:08.179 --> 00:14:09.220 Every single thing. 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:12.480 He, this is, and now work with me here. 00:14:12.940 --> 00:14:15.500 I think he cares about what you watch on TV. 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:18.200 I think he cares about what you do on your commute. 00:14:18.860 --> 00:14:24.580 I think he cares about how you interact with people of importance and with people of little importance. 00:14:24.840 --> 00:14:27.279 I think he cares how you interact with people you're never going to see again. 00:14:27.340 --> 00:14:28.000 You kind of know that. 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:38.759 And so if you're going, if we're going to be obedient to God, then we have to be constantly walking with, talking to, and interacting with God, right? 00:14:41.259 --> 00:14:42.740 I think he cares about what we eat. 00:14:42.860 --> 00:14:43.700 You know, this is interesting. 00:14:43.860 --> 00:14:49.480 You know, I, I, this is my, my, this is my view and somebody could call me, tell me I'm wrong. 00:14:49.559 --> 00:14:52.039 And I don't know though, I, in small matters. 00:14:52.139 --> 00:14:53.000 So what are you going to eat? 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:59.820 You know, what, what are you going to, let's, let's assume that, you know, are you going to watch this game or the other game or what are you going to do? 00:14:59.820 --> 00:15:09.639 And, and I think in small matters, there's probably a pretty wide road of what we, what is appropriate to do and what, what God would, you know, he's like, I don't do this and don't do that. 00:15:09.659 --> 00:15:10.639 But there's, there's a wide road. 00:15:10.820 --> 00:15:20.419 I think as, as matters grow, the, the road narrows though, and into a bit of a path as you decide on what you should do for your career. 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:28.820 I think it's a, it's a wide road as you decide how high up in your career and how much energy you should strive to and put forth to climb the corporate ladder. 00:15:28.820 --> 00:15:30.360 I think, I think the path does narrow. 00:15:32.539 --> 00:15:39.019 As you, as you look at your life and you decide, well, I, I want to, I want to get married. 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:48.080 I think the roads, you know, it's, it's, it's a little bit wide, you know, there's, there's some, there's some bumpers, but it's a little bit wide, but then you decide, okay, this is who I want to marry. 00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:54.279 And this is more than just an, you know, an interaction with, I think the road becomes pretty narrow then. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:00.340 Small matters, there's a wide road, but, but there is still a road though, right? 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:08.059 And so, and this, I don't know, I mean, if you, if you guys tried it, so I said, are you obedient to God with every decision of consequence? 00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:11.679 Really we can ask, are you obedient to God with every decision? 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:17.639 We start with those of consequence, and I think we're going to work, work towards the, the smaller matters though. 00:16:18.100 --> 00:16:18.200 Yeah. 00:16:19.299 --> 00:16:20.399 Let's keep reading. 00:16:21.860 --> 00:16:32.679 Genesis 12, it says, from there he went on toward the hills of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. 00:16:33.019 --> 00:16:36.080 There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:39.320 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev. 00:16:41.710 --> 00:16:47.129 So Abram keeps going and he, he finds some spots. 00:16:47.129 --> 00:16:55.009 He sets up his tent and what, and he, he, he keeps on moving along and moving along and moving along and along. 00:16:55.049 --> 00:16:58.649 And we can surmise that he's, he's building an altar everywhere he goes. 00:16:58.649 --> 00:17:00.309 He's, I'm going to worship God. 00:17:00.309 --> 00:17:02.029 I don't understand what to do next. 00:17:02.129 --> 00:17:03.009 I'm going to worship God. 00:17:03.049 --> 00:17:03.889 I'm going to call on him. 00:17:04.049 --> 00:17:07.809 He's going to make sense of what I really am not sure about. 00:17:11.259 --> 00:17:14.460 His home, so wherever he dwelled, that was a place of worship. 00:17:14.460 --> 00:17:27.220 Wherever he helped tended that, you know, these, these sheep, wherever he acted as a shepherd at his work, he was worshiping, you know, wherever, whenever he was interacting with his spouse, he was worshiping. 00:17:27.299 --> 00:17:29.420 When he was with family, he was worshiping. 00:17:29.460 --> 00:17:34.500 When he was seeing people out there and passing by, he would, he would worship. 00:17:34.700 --> 00:17:37.720 When he was in foreign lands and uncomfortable spots, he would worship God. 00:17:38.279 --> 00:17:40.119 Abram was always worshiping God. 00:17:40.759 --> 00:17:46.180 You know, our, our box, the longer that you've spent inside, just understand this to be true. 00:17:46.220 --> 00:17:52.640 The longer you've spent inside of a church or Christian setting, the greater tendency you have to put God in a box. 00:17:54.220 --> 00:18:07.599 Not saying you're doing it, but I'm saying the longer you've spent, especially in, you know, especially in, in Western culture, or maybe it's in every culture, but there's just a, this tendency that I've spent years of my life and there's nothing to be ashamed of. 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:09.880 I'm very proud that I grew up in a Christian home. 00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:12.440 My tendency though, is to put God in a box. 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:16.819 That's not what we ought to do. 00:18:16.940 --> 00:18:20.660 We ought, we ought to worship God wherever and everywhere we go. 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:35.279 What would it look like in your place of work if you decided not, not, not to be a light, but yes, to be a light. 00:18:35.319 --> 00:18:43.680 But if you just decided, I'm going to worship God when I go to work, I'm going to be a light, of course, but I'm going to be a light because I'm worshiping God. 00:18:43.740 --> 00:18:45.200 Like let's make that the thing. 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:46.819 I'm going to, I'm going to honor God. 00:18:47.539 --> 00:18:50.119 Whatever that looks like, I'm honoring God when I go to work. 00:18:51.539 --> 00:18:52.180 There's a fear. 00:18:52.220 --> 00:18:59.460 If you'll be real, there's a fear inside of all of us, not only in our work, we can take going out to the store, anything. 00:19:00.279 --> 00:19:01.839 We can take being at home for sure. 00:19:01.980 --> 00:19:05.240 There's, there's a fear of projecting our faith. 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:09.640 Some of it, there's a fear that I'm going to be looked at differently. 00:19:10.359 --> 00:19:13.980 Some of it, there's a fear that I'm going to be judged now by a different standard. 00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:26.619 There's some that, that it's couched in a fear that says, I don't want them to know that I'm a Christian or that I'm a strong follower because I'm not really living up to it. 00:19:26.700 --> 00:19:28.500 I don't want to set for them a bad example. 00:19:32.220 --> 00:19:32.759 I'd respond. 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:36.140 We'll just, we'll just repent, you know, let's change. 00:19:36.220 --> 00:19:36.900 Let's do it together. 00:19:40.630 --> 00:19:44.829 We've got this fear and it's happened to me more than a few times. 00:19:44.829 --> 00:19:58.990 I'm sure it's happened to you is that when you tell people, when I share with people that I, that I'm a minister, that I'm a pastor, I try to, I'm working, especially in 2024 to to be flagrantly offensive. 00:19:59.170 --> 00:20:01.509 I trust that I'll be able to relate with people. 00:20:01.650 --> 00:20:02.849 That's, that's a trust that I have. 00:20:02.910 --> 00:20:09.289 I believe I'm able to do that, but let me, let me lead from a place of spirituality and then see what else happens. 00:20:09.890 --> 00:20:13.849 But I'm trying to make a point that I'm going to tell people I am, I'm a, I'm a pastor. 00:20:13.849 --> 00:20:16.869 At least I'm going to tell people I moved here to help plant the church. 00:20:17.109 --> 00:20:21.349 Maybe, maybe when they see me on Sunday speaking, they might feel like, oh, I, they, I didn't know that. 00:20:21.450 --> 00:20:24.650 But at least, and that's happened a couple of times, like, I thought you were doing AV. 00:20:24.789 --> 00:20:25.849 Well, I do that too sometimes. 00:20:26.049 --> 00:20:37.230 And, uh, but you don't, you know, the fact when, when somebody, when you, when you finally share your faith with them and they say, I didn't know you were a Christian, uh, that's not a compliment. 00:20:43.559 --> 00:20:44.779 It's not something to be proud of. 00:20:44.839 --> 00:20:45.720 I related with them. 00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:51.859 At least this is the conviction I'm coming to is I, I don't feel proud of that anymore. 00:20:51.859 --> 00:20:52.900 At one point I did. 00:20:53.160 --> 00:20:54.539 That means I'm connecting. 00:20:54.779 --> 00:20:56.539 That means that I'm with them. 00:20:56.660 --> 00:20:58.819 That means I'm not proud of that anymore. 00:21:01.880 --> 00:21:03.519 Do you think about worshiping God wherever you go? 00:21:03.619 --> 00:21:12.019 What if you had a habit of praying for your coworkers for a couple of minutes before you walked into work, praying for your coworkers? 00:21:14.369 --> 00:21:23.049 What have you decided that you were going to use, uh, this, the thread app that is widely accessible to anybody who is a part of this church and wants access to it? 00:21:23.369 --> 00:21:24.130 Uh, what have you decided? 00:21:24.130 --> 00:21:26.450 I'm just gonna, there's, there's some pretty cool questions in there. 00:21:26.529 --> 00:21:30.630 There's some, there's some questions that I can ask, uh, people and get a conversation started. 00:21:30.730 --> 00:21:32.730 What if you decided you were, you were, we were just going to do that. 00:21:33.390 --> 00:21:41.230 What if when you prayed at the dinner table, uh, you, you talked about God during dinner instead of just praying for it, for it during or praying, thanking God for dinner. 00:21:43.990 --> 00:21:49.029 What if you decided I'm bringing God the next conversation that I have with my spouse, I'm bringing God along with me. 00:21:53.859 --> 00:21:56.279 One other thing we're going to, we're going to look at, then we're going to wrap up here. 00:21:56.380 --> 00:21:57.740 It's in Genesis 13. 00:22:00.390 --> 00:22:17.089 So the, the Lord said to Abraham after Lot had parted from him, look around from where you are to the North and to the South, to the East and West, all the land, uh, yeah, Genesis 13, 14, all, all the land that you see, I will give to you, to you and your offspring forever. 00:22:17.589 --> 00:22:26.190 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring offspring could be counted. 00:22:26.869 --> 00:22:32.869 Go walk through the length and breadth of the land for I am giving it to you. 00:22:33.150 --> 00:22:41.170 So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tent there. 00:22:41.410 --> 00:22:51.519 He built an altar to the Lord, a little bit, a little bit of context, um, that Abram, he just parted ways with Lot. 00:22:51.640 --> 00:22:57.380 There was some infighting with their shepherds and Abraham said, you choose whatever side you want to go on. 00:22:57.380 --> 00:22:59.700 Uh, I'll, I'll take the other one. 00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:04.380 Um, Lot takes this fertile, what appears to be really fertile plane. 00:23:04.519 --> 00:23:09.240 Abram takes what appears to be a lesser plane and, and God decides I'm going to bless you. 00:23:09.319 --> 00:23:12.759 This is, I promised you and I'm going to be faithful to my promises. 00:23:12.900 --> 00:23:15.660 And so there's, there's a bunch of good happening right now. 00:23:15.700 --> 00:23:20.200 You read the life of Abraham and you would see that there's, there's conflict. 00:23:20.339 --> 00:23:24.920 A lot of times this, this bit though, there's not, there's a lot of good stuff that's happening. 00:23:26.440 --> 00:23:27.480 Things are going well. 00:23:27.619 --> 00:23:28.160 There's peace. 00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:40.680 Uh, there's not going to be peace for a long, there's not going to be peace forever, but right now there's peace, uh, for, for you and I, we have to realize maybe you are in a season where there is peace and I don't know exactly what peace looks like for you. 00:23:40.759 --> 00:23:42.299 Perhaps things are going well at work. 00:23:42.660 --> 00:23:46.420 Perhaps your relationship with your spouse is going awesome. 00:23:46.539 --> 00:23:53.180 Perhaps your roommate relation, everything's going well and you feel connected to God and you're walking with God and you feel like there's hope. 00:23:53.180 --> 00:23:57.920 In these times, it can be a little bit difficult for us to, uh, to worship God. 00:23:58.119 --> 00:24:09.420 I found, you know, in, in the middle of great sorrow, great strife, great difficulty, uh, it's easier, it's easier to bow because we're already almost on our knees, right? 00:24:09.759 --> 00:24:14.339 In times when things are going well, it's quite difficult to give glory and praise to God. 00:24:14.380 --> 00:24:38.420 If you try to explain to somebody who's not a follower, and this is, I saw it with, uh, there, Bianca's, uh, Bianca's friends, uh, she's a couple of, she had a couple of really good friends growing up and, um, I, it was so interesting because Bianca passed, uh, this nursing exam that she had studied a bunch for to become an RN and she had worked really hard and her friends wanted to celebrate her. 00:24:38.539 --> 00:24:44.299 And so I remember one of them came and, uh, and, and, you know, Bianca's like, oh, glory to God. 00:24:44.299 --> 00:24:45.019 Oh my gosh. 00:24:45.019 --> 00:24:45.480 I don't know how. 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:52.460 And, and this, this, this woman, great, great girl, she just, yeah, but you worked so hard for it though. 00:24:52.539 --> 00:25:02.640 It was, you put forth the effort and Bianca at every point, it was so interesting to see this tension that was like with smiles, but we all understood what was going on that Bianca was like, no, no, no. 00:25:02.680 --> 00:25:06.960 It's, it was all God and, and this, this, this, this woman's like, no, no, no. 00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:14.759 You put the work in, of course, God blessed you, but you had to do a lot of the work and you made it happen for yourself. 00:25:14.980 --> 00:25:18.400 And, and, uh, when, when things are going well, it's just tough to praise God. 00:25:19.980 --> 00:25:22.220 You know, there's, there's a concept here. 00:25:22.420 --> 00:25:25.559 I please, I don't want to, I don't want to lose you. 00:25:25.559 --> 00:25:29.519 Or if I lose you, let me lose you for a couple minutes and then, and then follow me here at the end. 00:25:29.579 --> 00:25:34.319 But I want to talk just a little bit about the NBA playoffs or any kind of playoffs. 00:25:34.519 --> 00:25:35.420 All right. 00:25:35.460 --> 00:25:35.680 All right. 00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:45.640 If I, I, I've worked on, I've worked on some of these illustrations, like I feel like I can make sense of it to even somebody who's like, I don't care and I don't know about sports. 00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:47.220 I'll, I'll make it make sense for you. 00:25:47.259 --> 00:25:47.420 Okay. 00:25:47.460 --> 00:25:51.859 So the NBA playoffs, this is to get to, to win the title. 00:25:51.940 --> 00:26:01.000 There's 16 teams that go into this tournament and this tournament you have to play when they decide who you play, you play the same team up to seven times. 00:26:01.019 --> 00:26:04.660 It's the first team to win four games advances to the next round. 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:13.720 And so it's easy at times if you, if you are just playing a one-off tournament, you can do one strategy and beat the team. 00:26:13.960 --> 00:26:22.019 But in the course of winning four times against a team where it's the playoffs, everyone's pretty, pretty good because there's teams that don't make it the lesser teams. 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:23.220 So everyone's pretty good. 00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:25.839 It's quite difficult to beat these teams. 00:26:25.859 --> 00:26:34.940 And there's one thing that I've listened to a bunch of podcasts and they, every player and every coach will tell you that it's tougher to watch film. 00:26:35.059 --> 00:26:36.539 Like you'd watch film after the game. 00:26:36.539 --> 00:26:43.359 It's tougher when you have your players to watch the film, when you win by 25, then to watch the film when you win by four. 00:26:44.339 --> 00:26:48.720 And so, because if you win by 25, what went well, well, everything went well. 00:26:48.839 --> 00:26:49.799 What do we have to change? 00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:50.900 We don't have to change it. 00:26:50.920 --> 00:26:51.599 We did so good. 00:26:51.799 --> 00:26:52.880 We did amazing. 00:26:53.380 --> 00:26:55.019 It was, this team is much lesser than us. 00:26:55.079 --> 00:26:55.980 They're not very strong. 00:26:56.319 --> 00:26:58.359 We just keep doing the same thing over and over again. 00:26:58.380 --> 00:26:59.039 And we'll be fine. 00:26:59.119 --> 00:27:03.319 If you win by four points, we made a few mistakes. 00:27:03.500 --> 00:27:05.079 It was a couple of shots different. 00:27:05.079 --> 00:27:11.880 If we, we need to make this adjustment, if we are going to succeed and beat them more and more times. 00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:28.299 And so, and you see, and you'll, you'll find that the teams that win the championship, they're the ones that have enough discipline in their lives and enough discipline and team culture to make changes when they win by a lot of points. 00:27:29.579 --> 00:27:35.119 And so maybe this morning you look at your life and you feel like I'm winning by a lot of points. 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:38.200 Life is, life is going pretty well for me right now. 00:27:39.500 --> 00:27:42.259 What I would say is we still need to worship and honor God. 00:27:42.359 --> 00:27:47.579 What I would say is perhaps you need to make adjustments even in your success. 00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:51.460 If you are going to worship God for the next six months, not just the last six. 00:27:53.380 --> 00:27:58.779 Our relationships with God, they need to be those who call on him when things are going extremely well. 00:27:58.799 --> 00:28:01.640 And when things are not going well, this is what Abraham did. 00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:05.359 And he was blessed through it because the reality is there's going to be a trial that comes up. 00:28:05.420 --> 00:28:11.579 There's going to be a difficult situation and you don't want to look back and say, well, I just, I don't have the faith for it. 00:28:11.740 --> 00:28:15.900 This is your opportunity perhaps to build up the faith for what's going to happen later. 00:28:16.259 --> 00:28:16.400 Yeah. 00:28:18.839 --> 00:28:47.240 You know, I want to, I want to close with this, this last concept, you know, we talked about the, that Abraham set up places to worship, the great truth, the great reality, the great joy that we have as followers post Jesus's death, burial and resurrection is that we, we don't have to set up physical altars and we don't have to, we, we, we understand we don't worship God in a proximal location. 00:28:47.500 --> 00:28:49.119 We worship God wherever we go. 00:28:49.279 --> 00:28:54.160 And so there's an opportunity then to always be worshiping God. 00:28:55.240 --> 00:29:02.920 There's an opportunity to put up an altar inside of our hearts that, that allows us to constantly be praising the Lord. 00:29:03.799 --> 00:29:08.559 Paul says in first Thessalonians five, he just says, pray without ceasing. 00:29:09.319 --> 00:29:21.619 I want to read this, this little excerpt from an article and I'm going to read a little bit more than just this, but this is some of the meat of it that I hope communicates to us. 00:29:21.859 --> 00:29:25.279 The, maybe, maybe you feel like my prayer life is one that I'm always calling out to God. 00:29:25.299 --> 00:29:28.839 Or maybe you look and say, I don't know how often I think about God on an average week. 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:30.779 There's hope though, is what I would say. 00:29:31.259 --> 00:29:43.039 It says, to pray, I think does not primarily mean to think about God in contrast to thinking about other things or to spend time with God instead of spending time with other people. 00:29:43.619 --> 00:29:46.839 Rather it means to think and live in the presence of God. 00:29:48.359 --> 00:29:55.880 Although it is important and even indispensable for the spiritual life to set apart time for God and God alone. 00:29:56.460 --> 00:30:10.259 Prayer can eventually become unceasing prayer when all our thoughts, beautiful and ugly, high and low, prideful and shameful, sorrowful and joyful can be thought in the presence of God. 00:30:10.740 --> 00:30:23.160 What I mean is that we can convert our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer when we move from a self-centered monologue to a God-centered dialogue. 00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:28.839 This requires that we turn all our thoughts into conversation. 00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:36.200 The main question therefore is not so much what we think, but to whom we present our thoughts. 00:30:37.380 --> 00:30:47.839 To pray unceasingly is to lead all our thoughts out of their fearful isolation into a fearless conversation with God. 00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:53.000 Jesus' life was a life lived in the presence of God his Father. 00:30:53.180 --> 00:30:57.220 He kept nothing, absolutely nothing, hidden from his face. 00:30:57.880 --> 00:31:04.819 His joys, his fears, his hopes, and his despairs were always shared with his Father. 00:31:05.500 --> 00:31:15.420 Therefore he could indeed say to his disciples, you will be scattered, leaving me alone and yet I am not alone because my Father is with me. 00:31:16.460 --> 00:31:27.420 Thus prayer asks us to break out of our monologue with ourselves and to follow Jesus by turning our life into an unceasing conversation with our Heavenly Father. 00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:34.519 Let us work towards the goal of becoming men and women who do just that. 00:31:34.799 --> 00:31:37.859 It's great to set goals and times of prayer. 00:31:38.440 --> 00:31:45.039 It's even greater to make a decision that every day is going to be spent worshiping God and maybe that sounds terrifying for you. 00:31:45.480 --> 00:31:48.319 And I would say it probably is a little bit terrifying. 00:31:48.500 --> 00:31:57.640 Whenever you give up the reins and control of something and you decide I'm going to talk to God and then I got to follow what he says, I got to walk in obedience, that is terrifying. 00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:04.579 But there's great growth, there's great peace, there's great happiness that is promised on the other side of what is difficult for all of us. 00:32:04.640 --> 00:32:04.779 Amen? 00:32:05.099 --> 00:32:05.400 Amen. 00:32:05.799 --> 00:32:06.339 Thank you. 00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:07.720 Have a great Mother's Day. 00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:08.660 You are dismissed. 00:32:09.380 --> 00:32:11.380 Fathers, why don't you go ahead and pick up your children. 00:32:11.380 --> 00:32:14.000 Let's let the mom spend a little bit of time with them. 00:32:22.660 --> 00:32:27.599 Thank you so much for listening to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast. 00:32:27.940 --> 00:32:31.279 If you're in the Kalamazoo area, we'd love to get connected. 00:32:31.539 --> 00:32:38.900 Please go to kalamazoo.church and fill in your information to come to a Sunday service or any other event that we have going on. 00:32:38.900 --> 00:32:41.539 In any case, you'll be hearing from us next week.